Mods don't have access to your info (which is probably a good thing), but I'll take a guess...
Your screenshot is the same as the product description in the SW link at the bottom of this page. It says:
Score Watch Benefits:
- Monitors your credit report at Equifax on a daily basis and your FICO® score on a weekly basis
- Notifies you when you reach your target score or when you might qualify for a better interest rate
- Alerts you when unexpected changes to your credit report cause your FICO® score to drop
- Provides two Equifax Score Power reports each year
The score is monitored weekly it says. It doesn't provide a weekly score; it just monitors it and there's a difference. In other words, if your score didn't change, it won't alert you because there was no score change. And on the second line, the monitoring is based around your target score.
I'm not saying this applies to everyone, but I suspect most of the complaints about SW is that their target score is incorrectly set. They'll set it for a lofty goal and you will not get any SW score alerts until you surpass that goal. When I first subscribed, I set it for 800 when my scores were in the 500s and I couldn't figure out why I wasn't getting any alerts. For best practice, ALWAYS set it to EXACTLY equal your current score. That way, if your score goes up or down, you'll get alerted.
Another complaint is a lack of knowledge as to what it catches and what it does not catch. The SW Guide found stickied here somewhere lists the criteria. Among those, you will not get an alert for decreased balances or dropped accounts, however, it will alert you to increased balances, added baddies, changed accounts, new inquiries, etc.
Finally, some complain about lack of a score change when a baddie drops. You don't always gain points when a CA, PR, or any other baddie drops. Sometimes there is no change. In some cases, you can lose points. If their target score isn't correctly set, they could be missing out on alerts if their assumption was an increase.
The score power reports aren't bi-annually. You use the first when you first subscribe with the second being used anytime. Upon renewal, you get two more.
Congrats on the deleted late. I was unclear as the date of that late. How old is it? Was it your only baddie? FICO largely stops dinging you for 30-day lates beyond a couple of years. It might be old enough where you won't see an increase if removed. You definitely wouldn't see much, if any gain at all if you have other baddies reporting. As we always say, YMMV.
