Monthly Fee for ACCURATE Fico Scores: Worth it?

[Anonymous]

Hi all!  I am relatively new to these forums and had a general question. 

I have become quite obsessed with growing my scores, and well the ones I get from CK I know aren't 'right'.  I also get a score monthly from a couple of cards, but again they seem to be 'off' and I get frustrated with having to wait month to month.

Early October I paid the $1 for the 7 day to get all 3 scores and liked what I saw.  Of course I cancelled so as not to pay the $30 a month.  My question is do most people actually pay the monthly fee?  And is it worth it to do so?

TIA.

[newhis]

Only you can answer if it is worth it to you. You can get the service for $15 a month, just take the offer when you try to cancel.

I don't need to see my scores every day/week so for me is enough to have TU and EX FICO free each month.

[Anonymous]

Yeah I am kinda bummed they didnt offer me the $14 deal when I cancelled. 

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Hi all!  I am relatively new to these forums and had a general question. 

I have become quite obsessed with growing my scores, and well the ones I get from CK I know aren't 'right'.  I also get a score monthly from a couple of cards, but again they seem to be 'off' and I get frustrated with having to wait month to month.

Early October I paid the $1 for the 7 day to get all 3 scores and liked what I saw.  Of course I cancelled so as not to pay the $30 a month.  My question is do most people actually pay the monthly fee?  And is it worth it to do so?

TIA.

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I am pretty sure that you are talking about a specific credit monitoring service (CMS) called Credit Check Total (CCT).  It's a good idea in a post like this to call it out by name, so people will know for sure what you are talking about.

Incidentally, your options are not only $1 or $30 with CCT.  There is a way to get a 50% discount on it, thus paying $15 a month.  I believe the approach is to pay the $1, then cancel during the 7 days, and you will get offered a $15 membership rate if you stay.

In your case, you should probably go with the $15 CCT approach.  It's the closest solution to all the stuff you want.  I am really tightfisted with money, so my personal preference is to use free tools for score and report monitoring.  But I do not know of any that will allow you to pull FICO 8 scores on all three bureaus on the same day and do it for free.  CCT will cost you a little bit of money, but it will allow you to also get daily report and score updates from Experian.  This kind of daily feedback sounds like it will make you happy.

Another more comprehensive option would be myFICO, where you could get a zillion scores once a month.  But that would cost $40/mo.

One thing I would not do is abandon Credit Karma altogether.  It will be a nice thing to pair with CCT for you.  With CCT you get daily pulls of your EX credit report, but only monthly pulls of EQ/TU.  With Karma you can get your EQ/TU reports as often as once a week.  And Karma gives you some other nice features, like a free Auto insurance score (used by the Auto Insurance industry and different from FICO).

[Anonymous]

Oh certainly not abandoning CK!!  I check that once a week like clockwork. 

When I called to cancel with CCT, no one offered me a 50% discount to stay!  I so would have!  Maybe I should call them and see if they will give it to me for the $15.

[Anonymous]

My advice is to create a specific discussion thread devoted solely to that.  Subject line something like:

Credit Check Total -- how do I get $15 rate?

Then in the body of the email explain that you cancelled by phone and didn't get the 50% off offer.  You may need to do an automated cancel to trigger that now -- not sure.

You will probably get a number of people willing to advise you.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Hi all!  I am relatively new to these forums and had a general question. 

I have become quite obsessed with growing my scores, and well the ones I get from CK I know aren't 'right'.  I also get a score monthly from a couple of cards, but again they seem to be 'off' and I get frustrated with having to wait month to month.

Early October I paid the $1 for the 7 day to get all 3 scores and liked what I saw.  Of course I cancelled so as not to pay the $30 a month.  My question is do most people actually pay the monthly fee?  And is it worth it to do so?

TIA.

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I'm a huge supporter of $1 trials from CCT.  I usually 2 per month which for $2 lets me access my 3B scores 4X a month, basically once a week and a week apart from one another.  I usually do a trial on the first Wednesday, cancel it within a few days, repull my scores on the second Wednesday (part of the same trial).  Then on the 3rd Wednesday I'll do another trial and cancel it shortly after, then the fourth Wednesday repull my scores again from that second trial.  3B scores once a week for 50 cents is what it works out to be, or ~17 cents a score.  The scores will exactly match the FICO 08 scores you receive free once per month from any of your CCs or other sources, but at least you won't have to wait another month.

I've done so many trials that I've lost count.  Every time (I believe) they've offered me the 1/2 price discount for $15/mo but I always turn it down.  If you try another trial or two I'm sure they'll offer you that 50% discount; I always get it from the automated system.  If you think it's worth $15/mo, go for it... otherwise rock out the $2/mo method that I illustrated above and you'll be fine as well.

[Thomas_Thumb]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Hi all!  I am relatively new to these forums and had a general question. 

I have become quite obsessed with growing my scores, and well the ones I get from CK I know aren't 'right'.  I also get a score monthly from a couple of cards, but again they seem to be 'off' and I get frustrated with having to wait month to month.

Early October I paid the $1 for the 7 day to get all 3 scores and liked what I saw.  Of course I cancelled so as not to pay the $30 a month.  My question is do most people actually pay the monthly fee?  And is it worth it to do so?

TIA.

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Credit scores are reflective of behavior. For me, knowing scores more than once a month is not value add. Fico 08 scores are available free through credit cards on a monthly basis. I get Classic TU 08 through Discover, Classic EX 08 through AMEX and EQ Bankcard 08 through Citi

If you do not currently get a monthly EX Fico 08 score, you can get it free by signing up for Discover Creditscorecard ... or you can now get it through Experian. The nice thing about the Creditscorecard thru Discover is the additional information becides the score. Here is what the summary looks like:

[more info is given in the pdf summary]

[Anonymous]

Got the 50% off of the 3 bureau reporting!  I probably will only keep in for 12 months but the offer is for 5 years.  My BK13 will drop off next September so after that, I will keep it a few months then cancel.

Thanks!!!

[Anonymous]

Very welcome.  CCT felt to me like the right fit for you.