The final, definitive test of whether Score Watch actually works

[Anonymous]

Okay, I've read through several of the threads on this board where people are complaining that Score Watch doesn't update on its own, that you have to burn one of your "Score Power" credits (or buy one and use it) to actually force Score Watch to notice that your score has changed.

I am presently in a position to test definitively whether the system actually works as advertised.

1. I signed up for Score Watch on 29 November, and my initial Score Power report shows that I had an Equifax FICO score of 690 at that time.
2. Per the information in the "Score Watch Guide" and in numerous threads in this forum, I have set my "Whenever your FICO® score of 690 reaches a target score of" alert threshold to my current score, 690. Supposedly, this means that if Score Watch notices that my score has deviated from 690 in either direction, it will alert me.
3. Getting Score Watch to actually notice a change in score seems to be the issue that is tripping up a lot of people. It will definitely notice if you give it a kick by burning a Score Power credit. What I'm trying to determine is whether it will ever notice on its own if you leave it alone.
4. myFICO says every alert will include your current FICO score as of the date of that alert, so the trick to getting a score update is getting Score Watch to trigger an alert.
5. Alerts can be triggered in two ways: either as a result of an alertable change in your credit report, which myFICO says they run daily, (mind you, not all changes trigger alerts), or as a result of your credit score (which myFICO says they check weekly) reaching or crossing the threshold you have configured in your alert settings.
6. Now for the experiment. My Score Power report on 29 November said I had an outstanding revolving balance of $9451. Yesterday, I submitted online payments for all of my credit cards to pay all of them off completely, with posting dates of yesterday or today, for a total of $9840 in payments. (I had charged a bit more since the Score Power report.) Let's assume it takes a full business day after the payments post for the banks to update my outstanding balances. So that means by Monday, 14 December, all of my cards should be sitting at zero balance.
7. For the 30 days following 14 December, I will put all of my cards away and not use any of them. I do have a few monthly subscriptions that automatically charge to various cards each month, but I will be keeping my eye on the cards daily and will pay them off again as soon as any charge appears. The goal will be to keep them all at zero balance for the entire 30-day period starting on 14 December. By the end of the 30-day period, all of the banks should have reported a zero balance on all my cards to the credit reporting agencies.
8. Although reducing balances on my credit report will not trigger a Score Watch credit report alert on its own, the resulting change to my credit score should. myFICO's score simulator says that if I were to pay off all of my revolving balances, my score would be in the range 760 to 800. That would be a significant improvement from my current score of 690 and should certainly generate an alert when Score Watch rechecks my credit score during its weekly process.
9. Assuming the worst-case scenario, in which all of the banks report my zero balance on the very last day of the 30-day period, if we allow Equifax a whole week to update its report based on the new information, and then we allow Score Watch a whole week after that to recheck my credit score, I should see an alert by 27 January.
10. I will post again when I receive my alert, or I will post on 27 January if I still haven't been alerted by then.
11. Assuming I have not been alerted by 20 January, I will run my credit report with Equifax directly (through AnnualCreditReport.com) to verify that it indeed shows zero balances on all my cards, and then I will wait the additional week for Score Watch to alert. If, on 27 January, Score Watch has still not alerted, we'll know it's a fraud, and I'll have definitive proof in the form of my Equifax report obtained independently.

[Anonymous]

I also have a couple of questions for Barry or any of the other myFICO reps.

1. To be able to notice important changes to my credit report on a daily basis (new inquiries, change of address, etc.), myFICO must be pulling my credit report from the reporting agency daily. I understand that myFICO wants to charge to let me see those reports; that's fine — not great, but fine. But since they get the report daily anyway, and since they own the FICO scoring algorithm, why can't they recalculate my credit score daily? Recalculating the score only weekly, when they have daily updates on the credit report, is ludicrous, even from a sales perspective. If they can notify me on the same day that something has changed in my credit report, then they can notify me on the same day that my score has changed, because the score is based entirely on the report! The only reason they wouldn't is the crux of my next question…
2. When someone complains that they are not receiving alerts when their score changes, and they do in fact have the alert enabled and set to their current score, Barry credits their account with a free Score Power and tells them to run a report to see whether they should have been alerted and to report back. But then when they do report back that the score did indeed change, Barry says it's impossible to know whether the score change occurred within the last week, in which case an alert supposedly would have been generated if they had waited just a little longer for Credit Watch to run its weekly score recalculation. So what can be learned by having someone run their report with a free Score Power credit? That seems to do nothing but give myFICO a way to weasel out of the complaint.

Combine these two questions into one theory, and it looks like myFICO has engineered quite a consumer trap here.

Look, what I want is a service where I can log in each day and see my current credit score, as of that same day. Even better if I can also see my same-day credit report that generated that score. If I wanted to do this with myFICO Score Watch, it'd cost me over $300 a month because I'd have to run a Score Power report every day. Unacceptable! When I hear "Score Watch," I think I'm going to be able to watch my score. They ought to call the product "Score Look," because that's all they let you do.

Message Edited by whitslack on 12-11-2009 10:11 PM

[MaisCher]

Please keep up updated on this I would be very interested. I canceled my subscription due to the frustration of everything. After all the rebuttals that I was basically wrong, I signed up again about a week ago to specifically test the system the way you are now. I'd be interested to see what you come up with and compare to my results.

[Anonymous]

A few minutes ago, I received a text message on my phone and an email telling me my FICO score has increased. Came on here and clicked through to Score Watch, and it is now showing 692. (Up a whopping two points, woo!) I immediately went to my alert preferences and reset my score change alert threshold to 692. Theoretically, that should mean I will be alerted the next time myFICO notices a change to my score in either direction. And theoretically, the earliest that could happen, barring any alertable changes in my credit report, would be a week from today.

So at least we know Score Watch can trigger an alert on its own, without an alert-worthy change to one's credit report. We'll see if it keeps working. I'll post again when I get another alert.

[Anonymous]

I just signed up for SW last week and have not had any alerts.  I removed an AU account and paid off the balance on one card so my total balances are now around $200.  According to the estimator, doing this should raise my score a minimum of 10 points from what it is now.  I am hoping this works and am anxious of when it will report.  

[Jazzzy]

I signed up in August. Since August 13th, I have had 13 alerts.

In my experience, I've never had to pull an extra report to see my scores. I think much of the confusion comes in because not everything that impacts your reports will trigger an alert. Paying down an account, for example, won't trigger an alert.

I've tried to have patience with the process, and I now understand the process better. I've had questions, and I've come here often for explanations....but...overall...the system has worked well for me.

OP...I'll be curious to see if it works for you. Please keep us posted.

[Anonymous]

Lynette,

I know that a change to one's credit report resulting from paying down a balance won't itself trigger an alert. However, significantly lowering one's debt utilization ratio should effect an increase in one's credit score, and, assuming one's score change alert threshold is set properly, a change in credit score should trigger an alert, although it may occur up to a week after the update to the credit report. That's the theory, anyway.

[MaisCher]

Well my lender called today to congratulate me. They pulled my credit and I've finally reached the 620+ midscore they sent me the report they pulled and my EQ is 621. It also showed that I missed the reporting day when I paid my Target card off last week so my balance has gone from $50 to $494!! That is a big jump that it appears SW didn't catch! My EQ is still reporting on SW as 617 with no alert to date. My setting are outlined below...

You will be alerted:

• Whenever your FICO® score reaches a target score of 617 [ Change ]
• Whenever one of your accounts has a balance increase larger than 5% [Change ]
• Whenever one of your accounts has a balance increase larger than $1 [Change ]

[Anonymous]

swtprncess281, assuming your lender is using the same scoring algorithm as Score Watch, and assuming it was today that your score increased to 621, it could take as much as a week for Score Watch to notice. If you haven't received an alert from Score Watch by next Monday, please tell us. It won't be definitive, due to the first assumption and due to possible other changes in your credit report that might be happening around the same time, but it will be an interesting data point in our experiment.

[Anonymous]

Interesting. I just got another alert. This one says my score has increased to 716, but it says the reason for the alert is that my balance increased on one of my credit accounts. (I guess my lenders must be reporting stale information, since I've already paid off all my balances with them!) Anyway, kind of weird that my score would increase at the same time as a balance increases. The only explanation is that another balance must have decreased by a greater amount. Of course, a balance decrease will not trigger an alert, so I can't see that unless I run a full "Score Power" report. I'm sticking to my experiment, though. Going to wait the full month, plus one week, for news of all my payments to flush through the system. Hopefully, I'll reach significantly better than 716.