Best credit monitoring service?

[Anonymous]

I've used IdentityIQ for a while and can recommend. They have several differnt tiers of monintoring, with of course notifications of changes and such. 

[vV35Hszm]

@Medic981 wrote:

CreditCheckTotal (CCT) has a great $1 free trial, that I use and abuse about once a week, just be sure to cancel the trial before seven days are up or you will be charged for a nonrefundable months subscription.

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Consider privacy.com for this... their virtual credit card numbers prevent unwanted charges like CCT.

[Anonymous]

So after reading the gurus respond, seems like you got a couple of options

1. Pay MF for a 3b report, $30+ (depending on the package)

2. Lock in the lowcost sites, $0-1(depending on the frequency)

I personally purchased the lowest value of MF, which is 30/mo. I have found that they will update the scores as they are reported. This could be daily or at whatever frequency your scores change. However, you only get the full report every 90 days. This has an affect on the site in a few ways, your simulator, and other scoring summaries reflect from the latest report, not that days scores.

To me there is a value in the consistant monitoring, I can also call them directly as a member and ask questions (these are the people sending my scores out). I've accepted the 90 days for the full report because I use the low cost options to check those reports anyway. I also have the CK and EX sending me alerts. The more alerts the better imo.

Personally, I was going to sign up to a monitoring service anyway, and <30$ was my budget for it. However, it took me almost 2 years to fully commit to MF after trying all of the other services. I then joined the forums, making it an all in one package.

[Anonymous]

Just a little heads up WarCulture, MF does not update your FICO 8 when there is a scoring change, it updates when there is an ALERTABLE event. The issue is, not all score changing events are alertable (events like inquiry reaching one year, AAoA crosses over thresholds...etc.) and not all alertable events change the score (events like paying down balance but not crossing UTI thresholds...etc.).

This is the reason why we get tons of threads asking things like "why did my score drop after paying down my balance?", the scoring change often has nothing to do the alert that triggered the scoring update causing major confusion.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Just a little heads up WarCulture, MF does not update your FICO 8 when there is a scoring change, it updates when there is an ALERTABLE event. The issue is, not all score changing events are alertable (events like inquiry reaching one year, AAoA crosses over thresholds...etc.) and not all alertable events change the score (events like paying down balance but not crossing UTI thresholds...etc.).

This is the reason why we get tons of threads asking things like "why did my score drop after paying down my balance?", the scoring change often has nothing to do the alert that triggered the scoring update causing major confusion.

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Once again, I learn something new everyday, thank you for clearing that up for me

[Anonymous]

No problem WarCulture.

[NRB525]

This is one reason I have 20+ open cards with activity. It ensures I get Alertable events to trigger all Scorable events

[Anonymous]

Demon: 20+ cards, we can do that, only 15 more to go..

Angel: you’re in the garden, stay put

[Anonymous]

Hi WC.  Bear in mind that even if you have lots of credit cards (with statement dates spread out over the month) and assuming that most of those cards are being used with their balances changing, it just means that you then get frequent FICO 8 updates.  The reason given for the alertable events still may have nothing to do with why the score changed (if it did).

It sounds like you are happy with the product you are getting and its cost ($360/year) -- and that you know about ultralow or zero cost solutions for getting those FICO 8 scores.  In short your decision is an informed decision which is all that matters.

[Anonymous]

I have never had a MF membership, but regarding alerts I feel it's worth noting that many people on this forum state that free sources (Credit Sesame, Credit Karma, etc) provide alerts quicker than does MF.