myFICO membership question

[Anonymous]

While you are making rapid changes (you hope) to your reports, it would be good for you to have some tools that would enable you to get frequent updates to them.  The $40/mo MF product will only give you your reports once a month, but fortunately there are tools like Credit Karma that will give you TU and EQ reports as often as once a week (just ignore Karma's scores).

Once you own your house, I would cancel the $40 subscription if I were you, but until then (given that you want to buy in the next few months) having it is the right choice.

Folks here can advise you on the best strategies for improving your mortgage scores in the very short time you have.

[Anonymous]

Thank you. I am using several secondary tools to help update my report more often (creditkarma, creditsesame, creditwise, experian free membership) and i check them often. I have found the scores among them are consistant and they are also consistant in the difference between my FICO score and what the other scores are so i should be able to guess my actual score. 

I have learned so much on here already. I am excited to learn even more. I do plan to cancel the membership when i get my mortgage and then go back to a more "relaxed" less obsessed version of credit improvement. 

[Anonymous]

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@AnonymousI am using several secondary tools to help update my report more often (creditkarma, creditsesame, creditwise, experian free membership) and i check them often. I have found the scores among them are consistant and they are also consistant in the difference between my FICO score and what the other scores are so i should be able to guess my actual score. 

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Do keep in mind that the term "actual score" is a bit off-base.  The scores you are receiving from CK, CS and CW are "actual scores" using the VS 3.0 model.  These scores are of course not FICO scores, but they are actual scores, as you probably notice they are the same if pulled at the same time. 

FICO scores at times can correlate with ones from the VS 3.0 model, but other times they don't.  I've gone periods of time where my scores between FICO 08 and VS 3.0 are within a few points of each other, but other times they've been say 75 points different.  My point here is that just because they're similar now doesn't mean they always will be, so you don't want to be tracking your VS 3.0 scores from CK/CS/CW and see a 50 point gain one day and then assume that your FICO scores went up roughly 50 points as well. 

It's best to forget about the scores provided from those free VS 3.0 powered services and just use them for your reports, then seek out sources for FICO scores like creditscorecard.com or creditchecktotal.com.

[Anonymous]

If you are planning to get a mortgage, don't pay any attention to Credit Karma's vantage score.

I just pulled MyFico 3B today, and have added them and my Credit Karma scores for you to see how they differ:

MyFico 8 scores are 

EQ 697   EX 681   TU 656

MyFico mortgage scores are 

EQ Fico 5 is 656   EX Fico 2 is 710   TU Fico 4 is 693

My Credit Karma VantageScore 3.0

EQ 758   TU 758

That's a big difference!

[Anonymous]

Great example above of how CK (VS 3.0) scores can be 100 points off from what a lender would see in checking your FICO scores.

[Anonymous]

Thank you both for the extra information. I used to use CreditKarma for many years along. One day I applied for something and when i got the denial letter in the mail for why I noticed my score was substantially different (and not in the good way). I like to use them mostly for alerts and such. I have found lately when i see a score increase i double check it against another site I think is more accurate (such as CCT- more recently or the cra websites) though i also realized my cra scores tend to be more off than accurate too. I will keep your advice in mind for sure for after I cancel my MyFICO membership.