myFICO v. Privacy Matters 1-2-3

[Anonymous]

Hello everyone,

So my wife and I each signed up for myFICO and I'm at 759 and she's at 813 (she's smiling) - both Equifax. I actually cancelled three accounts (everyone indicated that I shouldn't cancel ANY cards, but I went ahead anyway). myFICO sent me an email a few days later indicating that my score had gone UP (762) as a result. This seems contradictory to the "better" advise on this forum and I don't understand it.

So, I then (same day) applied for PrivacyMatters 1-2-3 (free reports from all three agencies). Imagine my surprise when Equifax comes in at 704! Can anyone explain this difference? I am very suspicious of 1-2-3 and have cancelled it. Thanks for any help!

Best,

Phil

[haulingthescoreup]

The PrivacyMatters scores, like the scores from TrueCredit and other monitoring agencies are what we call FAKO's. The report services are very useful --in fact, my TrueCredit is updating right now --but the scores are worse than worthless. I say "worse than" because they confuse the heck out of consumers, and the advice that comes along with them, if taken, can actually hurt your FICO scores.

If you like Privacy Matters' report services, hang on to them. Just ignore the FAKO scores.

Congrats on the real scores, btw! And welcome to the forums.

[Anonymous]

Thank you VERY much for the information. I had seen the reference to FAKO, but had no clue as to what it meant. The reporting was in fact, quite extensive and interesting to note that each service is kind of dancing to their own drummer (in terms of which cards/loans they monitor). I'm still a bit confused as to why there are multiple comments to NOT cancel accounts because it will hurt credit. My experience is that my score went up...Any thoughts? Best, Phil

[Anonymous]

I use both my self. PM to pull updated reports and MyFICO to track score updates. I ignore PM scores. Totally fake in this real world.

[haulingthescoreup]

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@Anonymous wrote:
Thank you VERY much for the information. I had seen the reference to FAKO, but had no clue as to what it meant. The reporting was in fact, quite extensive and interesting to note that each service is kind of dancing to their own drummer (in terms of which cards/loans they monitor). I'm still a bit confused as to why there are multiple comments to NOT cancel accounts because it will hurt credit. My experience is that my score went up...Any thoughts? Best, Phil

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I have seen a few other posts about scores going up when accounts are canceled. I * think * that they were from other members who also had high scores. (???)

If you had a smaller number of cards reporting balances in addition to closing those cards (these would be independent factors), this would have improved your scores. And again, it's the cards that report a balance, generally what is posted on your statements. Even if you pay your account in full after receiving a statement, it's showing that you have balances on your statements.

Did you close cards with low CL's? I've seen reports of scores climbing after canceling dud cards, although again, this could be coincidental.

And finally, how many accounts overall, open and closed, were showing, and how many open accounts did you start with, and how many are remaining? I've started seeing posts where TU in particular is giving scoldings for too many accounts. This is a big current debate, as to whether there really is a penalty, and if so, how big.