IS there a FICO service worth the cash? Seems like $17.95 a month is alot

[anykey]

To get a mortgage- I will need a 660, I now have a 629, not too bad.

1. Someone tried to steal my identity from Utah, I see no where online to change this. I never even been to that state. When I had bad credit this was not an issue- now it is. Help?


2. I see FICO has factored in my student loan at $180 a month payment. As of today I have the confirmation that this student loan has been fully discharged. This should help my score.

3. One easy thing I can do to boost my score is to pay down my one credit card a few hundred $.


I have started disputing a few things on line. I still have the 60 day wait period for 7 discharge. I see not all of the 3 bad creditors are on all 3 reports. And some are on as duplicates, or both good and bad standing.

So my question is- are there any paid services that you feel are worth it?

[Pjmax]

You've got a lot issues, some confusing, in one post.

I think you are spinning your wheels disputing your CRs before discharge, except for identity theft. Your credit reports will keep changing until a month after discharge as your creditors catch up with their reporting.

How did you discharge a student loan? And, how did you discharge a student loan when your BK is not discharged?

Why would you pay off a CC if it is in your BK? Nothing to say you can't pay anyone you want to after your discharge, but unless it's an Amex, why?

Up until my discharge I just kept an eye on things with Credit Karma, Credit Sesame and Credit.com. They are all free, ignore the fako scores, just watch them for trends and monitoring.

After discharge, I signed up for EIDT/MPM (Eliminate ID Theft/My Privacy Matters), it's 12.95/mo., but it's a 3-in-1 report, you can monitor all 3 CRAs and pull every day after 24hrs. + 1 min. Again, ignore the scores, they go up and down, but may or may not be close to your actual Fico's. This was a good source for me while cleaning up my reports, especially when I had 3 erroneous collections show up 6 months post-BK. USAA is another source for 3-in-1 daily monitoring, but is now closed to non-military (just in the last week or two.)

The only place to buy your Fico scores is MyFico, and yes they are expensive. If you pay for Scorewatch, it only gives you a score for 1 CR, once a month I believe, not worth it for me. They also may or may not be the Fico score model a lender would use (there are dozens of models, and some lenders have their own proprietary scores based on Ficos.) IMO, it is a waste of resources to pay for your Fico scores unless you have a lot of disposable cash. I get a free Transunion score monthly from my Walmart CC, and I've had some Fico's from credit applications, so I know about where my Ficos are in relation to my credit monitoring fako scores.

As far as the identity theft, you'll have to provide more info on the situation.

[anykey]

I went thru the 3 year period - disabled- did the paper work- and completed the 3 years- they dragged their feet on the discharge until I filed the 7. Now they issued it.

I will wait to pay on the cc.

I did find a credit union where I qualify to join- $5- and I then can take out $250 loan when secured by $250.

I find myself wanting to do SOMETHING toward moving things along.

I see via AAA I am eligle for some type of credit thing- tho as I suspected the idea is to sell me the real thing.

[Pjmax]

Your CC will/should show 0 balance and IIB after discharge. There is no score benefit to paying it.

[anykey]

I reaffirmed the debt on it.

[IBroke]

I'm paying $9.95/month for ScoreWatch and $4.95/month for MyFICO TransUnion quarterly monitoring. Due to the fact that I have several active accounts, I'm getting frequent score-updates from ScoreWatch - I'd say at least one every week. It also depends how you set it up. I get notifications for each and every change. ScoreWatch now also notifies you if a balance of a CC decreases - not too bad.

To the OP: Just FYI: FICO doesn't factor in monthly payment amounts.

[IBroke]

I reaffirmed the debt on it.

On a credit card? If so...ouch!

[Pjmax]

On a credit card? If so...ouch!

Ouch! For me too? Why did you do that?

[ccmisery]

FAKO scores are a joke, TransUnion FAKO on Credit Karma is currently 696 (it jumped 11 points since August), actual TransUnion score is a 498 according to my Barclay's Denial Letter.

[ksgirl38]

Personally I'm not sure why anyone would pay a fee to have someone monitor their credit score. There are websites like Credit Sesame and Credit Karma that will monitor them for free and although they aren't 100% accurate they are close enough to give you a ballpark figure. Honestly, it just takes time to rebuild your credit. It's just my opinion, but I think you'd be better off saving the money spent on a credit monitoring service towards something more useful.

[ccmisery]

Credit Karma, Credit Sesame and Quizzle to name a few, cant' stand Quizzle, terrible site with graphics and pop ups, all of which are very inaccurate in my case. Sure makes you feel good but the actual scores tend to be way lower, some people claim theirs are close, but in my case it was nearly 200 points and Credit Karma states "TransUnion" score, not so much the truth.

Actually from what I read, you cannot get a mortage for 2 years after Bankruptcy and FICO does not seem to matter much prior to this.

http://www.realtor.com/home-finance/homebuyer-information/buying-a-home-after-bankruptcy.aspx

[Pjmax]

CAbarista, you have 3 reports. Hope you've checked all 3 since your discharge. Amazon Visa isn't the easiest right out of BK, it's through Chase. The Amazon Store Card is an easier to get rebuilder if you shop at Amazon, it's through GECRB.

Yes, it's normal for collections to drop off.

The inquiry credit check for your job could show on any of the 3, or none since many employers run credit checks through services other than Experian, Equifax or Transunion.

And, your score through Experian monitoring is not a Fico score, it is a fako. Your actual Fico score is most likely quite different. For example, my Experian fako scores from various services range from 589 to 716. My actual Fico score is 650.

[Pjmax]

Sorry, I edited and added a last paragraph while you were posting.

[Pjmax]

Your Ex score from the monitoring service is a fako. The only place to purchase your fico scores is through MyFico, and they are expensive.

You might want to go to the MyFico forums and read up on fico scores, credit reports and rebuilding after BK.

[ccmisery]

Not only that, not all credit card companies use FICO, they use TransUnion, Equifax or Experian FAKO scores. All of which are not ever the same as FICO scores.