Which Service/Product to use?

[LenaLuthor]

So here's where I am in my journey. I am becoming obsessed with all things credit and scores.  I want know all the things and be on top of all the things.  Last year I started to really fix everything to do with ym credit and score.   

I have only one bad thing on my credit - a car loan.  

All my cards except one have a zero balance  and  the one I do have a balance on is under 10%.   Now I just paid all this stuff off from being almost maxed out last week so i know it will take a while to  reflect and my score to improve.  

Right now, I use Experian.  Its about 25 bucks a month and it gives me all three scores  but I am woondering if there is another product out there that is better to use?   I don't think all the many products out there are created equal.  Which is best in your minds.   Tempted to get  the MyFico  one and stop the Experian one. 

Thanks!  

[Anonymous]

Congratulations on the progress you've made so far. 

I use the Experian free subscription & occasionally spend $1 for a 3-bureau report. I like that it archives all of my reports and is quick with Experian alerts. 

I use Credit Karma, also free, for TU & EQ alerts. It is also provides an excellent snapshot of accounts and balances.

From what I've read the MyFico service is expensive while being slow to report alerts and changes. That said, if I was ready to get a mortgage I would purchase one month's worth of MyFico to check ALL my Fico scores. Beyond that singular purpose I fail to see the value. 

Caveat: YMMV & WALDT. 

[Anonymous]

A [car] loan is not a "bad thing" to have on your CR; OP, I'm not quite sure what you meant by that?

As far as CMS needs, that's really up to the individual.  Some see value in monthly memberships.  I don't.  I use nothing than free CMS sources... things like WalletHub, Credit Karma, Credit Sesame, creditscorecard.com, creditscore.com, credit.com, etc.  If you arm yourself with all of the free stuff out there, you'll receive plenty of report monitoring, alerts and so on, possibly not seeing a need for anything spent at all.  On occasion I've used $1 trials from CCT to get my 3B reports/scores (mostly during the rebuilding phase).  From 2016-present I've probably done a total of 60 dollar trials, so let's say I've spent $60 on CMS products in 3 years.  During that time I've taken my scores from 619 to 850 and haven't done a $1 trial thus far in 2019 I don't think, so IMO I'm completely done spending even a penny on CMS.  There are plenty of others though that do find value in a $29/mo or $59/mo membership here or elsewhere, so it all comes down to what you personally feel works for you.