@cgreer72 wrote:
When I log into MyFICO my EQ score appears. Is this in real time? Or do I need to click the "get todays score" link to get the most current score. I have my score watch setting set to alert me when I hit 700, but was wondering if there has been any change from my current 605 score.
SW is a great product. The score you see on the my Accounts page after you log in is the score pulled as of that day for that report and won't change until you pull another EQ FICO report. (Hint to myFICO tech folks...have it automatically update). However, if you click the ScoreWatch bar in the "My Accounts" page, you'll see a SW graph. That graph will update from time to time as will the alerts in the Alerts tab. You'll also get an e-mail from time to time saying that something changed on SW.
I recommend familiarizing yourself with the SW Guide found stickied here somewhere. There are two types of alerts with SW: score and credit I believe. Credit alerts come fairly quickly (inside of a day or two IME) for items like increased balances, added inquiries, added accounts, account changes, etc. As changes come, you'll get an alert and if your score changed as a result of that alert, then you'll see a score change not in the main My Account spage but instead in the graph and in the alerts tab.
Now here's where it gets tricky, your EQ FICO score (not reports) is monitored every 7-10 days as opposed to daily (though you certainly can get alerted daily if a lot happens per the credit portion of the monitoring). FOR BEST RESULTS, set your "Target Score" in settings to EXACTLY match your last known EQ FICO score. As your score increases, you'll get alerted, and if it decreases, you'll get alerted. If you set it too high, like 700, it could take a while before you get a score alert if action isn't being taken to get you there. When I first started, I did the same. My scores were in the 500s and set the Target score to 800 (dream big). Well, I never ever hit 800 and I'd still be waiting for a score alert because I haven't hit that goal yet. EVERYTIME your score changes, go back and change the target score to match your current score. Cumbersome but it works.
Finally, if you are monitoring EQ from another website, like a CMS, know that pulling a new EQ FICO from here will nullify a future score alert if you know your score changed. Since it is every 7-10 days, we rebuildings tend to pull new reports in real-time. But what many don't realize is that doing so may result in a lack of score alerts...which is OK since you'd know the score change anyway due to the new report.
