Monthly monitoring options

[Anonymous]

I want the best possible "picture" of my "credit health" on a monthly basis - with FICO scores included.  Which program would best provide this to me?  Shouldn't it be against the law that Experian no longer provides consumers with an opportunity to even purchase their FICO scores?  This seems extemely unfair to allow lenders to utilize information that isn't available to the consumer even for a price.

************************
800FICOwannabe
************************
04/21/09 - FICO scores: EQ - 711, TU - 642
02/28/09 - updated Tri-Merge: EQ - 699, EX - 651, TU - 571
08/01/08 - starting scores (Tri-Merge Morgtage Enhanced): EQ - 607, EX - 556, TU - 534

[llecs]

Your options are very limited!

FICO offers a monitoring service for EQ called ScoreWatch; details are outlined in the link at the bottom of this webpage. They also offer a quasi-monitoring service for TU called myFICO Quarterly Monitoring. They rellay don't monitor at all but provide you with a new TU report every 3 months. Of course, nada for EX.

IMO, and this is me, I pull each score for TU and EQ 2x per month. This way if there's a change in score, I am bound to catch it. If you do this, be sure to use a myFICO discount code (found via google). Another option is to subscribe to a CMS like TC, CCT, Chase ID, and so on. As you see a change in your reports, then come back here to see the score impact.

None of us like EX's decision to pull back from FICO. I don't like them for it and hope it backfires on them. The FCRA, I think, requires consumer access to the same score that the lender used in consideration during the app process. You can still get your EX FICO if you used a lender that pulled it. Otherwise, we are out of luck. I don't know if there is a law on the books requiring EX to provide a score for consumer access at anytime. If there is, it wouldn't require a FICO score. EX is really trying to break into the market with their own PLUS score and the Vantage score they heavily invested in. Everytime one of us pulled an EX FICO, they lost out on revenue. Not defending them; it is what it is.

[debtfree09]

Do you pull the reports directly from here 2x a month?  Do you use the standard option?

[llecs]

---

debtfree09 wrote:

Do you pull the reports directly from here 2x a month?  Do you use the standard option?

---

Yep. FICO Standard and selected TU only and paid $12something after the discount. For EQ, I used the discounted price for EQ that comes with having a Scorewatch subscription.

[haulingthescoreup]

I combine SW for Equifax and the Suze kit for TU. With the Suze kit, you pay for three scores up front, and then pull the score and report whenever.

SW and I don't get along all that well, as it sputters and stops and starts up again, but the EQ reports are discounted, even if you didn't get an alert, so that's useful.

With Suze, I just ignore all the bells and whistles and pull a TU whenever, which is not often, as it's not very useful in my area.

With both SW and Suze, the reports stay up for a year, through the period of your subscription. (If you pull a report a month before your subscription is up, it will vanish after that month, though.) The reports and score from Standard vanish after 30 days (or a few more), so be sure to save them to disk if you want to keep track.