Paying for credit monitoring? To do or not to do...

[Anonymous]

I've seen a couple of people mention they use both MF and CCT. What is the advantage of using both? Right now I have a MF and I'm happy with it. But I'm not opposed to adding CCT as well if it will helpful.

[OMW2_HighAcheiver]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I've seen a couple of people mention they use both MF and CCT. What is the advantage of using both? Right now I have a MF and I'm happy with it. But I'm not opposed to adding CCT as well if it will helpful.

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One thing is with CCT you get 3 bureau FICO scores once a month. myFICO Ultimate 3B you get them once every 3 months. 

[Anonymous]

With CCT you get much better report access, but with MyFICO you get the additional FICO scoring models.

[Kidcat]

I use both.  Since 90% of pulls are EXP where I live, having regular access to that report and score is essential right now, with a lot of movement on my reports.  I like the alerts for Myfico.  After my next 3B pull on Myfico on 12/9 I will cancel the monitoring and just pay to pull my reports every quarter for the various scoring models.  I will continue with CCT probably for another 2 yrs or so.  Diligent about old ish popping up.  If it doesn't in the next 2 years I will dial it back.

[Anonymous]

Personally, I don't. I cannot afford it.

$15/month would mean, for me, giving up three days/month of obtaining a small amount of hot food in my stomach to take the chill off of the cold winter (which is certainly not a daily indulgence).

Or it would mean inability to purchase refills of supplements essential to maintaining what health I have, as happened this month. "Sorry Doc, I sincerely cannot afford this $12 and that $6 supplement. I can budget that in next month, though!"

Or perhaps it would simply mean I'd need to start turning down local friend's invitations solely because "I cannot afford hte gas to come, otherwise i'd love to!"

I could always just nix savings out of my budget...

$15/month is 2% of my income. That means it had better be damn well essential to my life if I'm going to fork it over, because most of the rest of my budget is reserved for life-preserving necessities and the occasional luxury that has a lasting, tangible, proven effect of keeping me sane.

If paying for credit monitoring fit into that last part for me then I would seriously consider it, even with my extraordinarily limited budget. But, for me, it doesn't. I monitor transactions almost daily by looking at each individual acount and I keep up with the basics of my record's factors through Credit Karma and AmEx's Experian Fico score report.

The way I see it, I (now) know the right things to do to build and improve my credit, and as long as I'm doing that the numbers will work themselves out regardless of how close a magnifying glass I'm holding to it. Watching it that closely feels a little like watching grass grow--er, attempting to. Which I do sometimes.

Then again, I'm speaking as someone with a pretty simple credit file so far and a straightforward plan to thicken it, with Time being a key ingredient.

Each individual is going to have their own legitimate reasons for deciding one way or the other. Me, I assessed what I'd have to sacrifice in its place and simply went "Nope!" Maybe someday...

[Anonymous]

I would definitely say use the service. Firstly, you want to be alerted when negative marks show up, or if your score increases so that you know what's working and what not to do.

Occasionally you may forget to pay a bill on time, and you want to be alerted if anything negative shows up on your report. Of course do everything possible to remember to pay your bills on time. Have a calender, get reminders emailed and text messaged to you, etc.. As a member of credit monitoring, you have access to all types of educational resources, and the service enables you with the ability to use their learning center to basically become an expert on credit, this is great right!

For example, I use the service. Whenever my score goes up, I get an alert. I can pretty much guarantee that anytime anyone of your creditors increase the credit limit on your account, this will simultaneously increase your credit score. Most folks don't realize there is a direct correlation between increasing your credit limits, to increase your credit score. Since we are on the subject of increasing credit scores, and credit monitoring, one tip I recommend you try to do in order to raise your credit score is to pay your bill off in full every single month, and only use your credit cards for small purchases so that you can afford to pay off the bill each month, by doing this you show that you can responsibly USE your card.

Every nine to twelve months you will be able to most likely request that your bank raise the limit and they will approve it.

Getting your limits raised is not an automatic feature, sometimes it will happen automatically, but most of the time you will not get an increase in your limit unless you ask for it, just do not request this too often because this action can hurt your credit. (a max of one time per card, per nine months)

Eventually, after many years of getting your limits raised, they may eventually deny you due to your income not being high enough in relation to the increase you are asking for, however take this as far as you can, and by doing this I personally have over an 850 FICO score, along with other good habits I have implemented, but this being one of the most influential matters. 

Secondly, with credit monitoring you can protect yourself from fraud and identity theft, so due to this factor yes credit monitoring is well worth it!

[takeshi74]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I almost don't wanna pay the $15 for CCT's credit monitoring, It's like the needed friend right now to keep track of what's on my report, what's coming off and what I need to pay but $15/mo seems like alot to me!  Thoughts? Is it REALLY worth it?

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Worth is always highly subjective regardless of topic.  You can't poll to answer your question.  You have to make the call for yourself.  Like anything else, it's worth it to some and not worth it to others.

$15 may seem like a lot to you but it's really not for 3 bureau monitoring and FICO 8's.  It might help you to decide if you shopped around and compared the different services.  CK is free but it only offers TU and EQ report data and it does not provide FICO's.  

EIDT/MPM is about as cheap as it gets for a paid service monitoring all 3 and IIRC it's about $12/month however it also does not provide FICO's.

I don't use any of the paid services and rely on CK but I really don't need the FICO's and purchase them as needed.  Still sorting out a solution for Experian but in the interim I'm just pulling EX reports as needed.  YMMV.  Do what works for you.

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@Anonymous wrote:

I've seen a couple of people mention they use both MF and CCT. What is the advantage of using both? Right now I have a MF and I'm happy with it. But I'm not opposed to adding CCT as well if it will helpful.

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myFICO is trigger based.  Not all activity with a scoring impact is a trigger.  See also:

http://myfico.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/463/~/understanding-what-triggers-fico%C2%AE-3-bureau-credit-monitoring-and-fico%C2%AE-identity

CCT provides scores and reports on fixed intervals.

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@OMW2_HighAcheiver wrote:

One thing is with CCT you get 3 bureau FICO scores once a month. myFICO Ultimate 3B you get them once every 3 months. 

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You also get FICO 8's as trigger activity causes updates to take place with myFICO.  The 19 FICO's are provided quarterly.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Occasionally you may forget to pay a bill on time, and you want to be alerted if anything negative shows up on your report. Of course do everything possible to remember to pay your bills on time. Have a calender, get reminders emailed and text messaged to you, etc..

 Most folks don't realize there is a direct correlation between increasing your credit limits, to increase your credit score. ....

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This forum isn't most folks. Being here, I got to learn all the stuff you say you've learned from credit monitoring, only I got to learn it for free!

I personally set up automatic payment of all my accounts as a safety net in case I forget. PIF for cards I rarely use and minimum payment for the card I most often use. By monitoring the charges and pending charges of every account nearly daily, I'd definitely have a heads up on any fraudulant charges and no lates are ever expected to occur.

[OMW2_HighAcheiver]

I say just be responsible every month and I don't have to worry about NOTHING! I also WON'T have to hound, beg and plead my creditors to increase anything. It'll happen natural. So will my score. All this monitoring, stalking myself is for the birds. To each their own. To me and my own......whatever works.