Best way to check on Credit scores

[erinmi]

Ok

I'm trying to figure out if it is better to just pull our credit reports on a regular basis with score or signing up for one of those credit score watch programs.

We used up our free ones late in the year (Aug/Sept/Oct), so we won't get those until the end of 2008.

I've seen messages on here about CreditKeeper and TrueCredit not having accurate FICO scores, so I'm thinking I would stay away from those.

But Scorewatch at myfico.com only tracks Equifax, so what would that point be of only having one plus you can't regularly pull reports (you get one at the beginning and then one more later on).

Would it make more sense to just say pull all three now for both of us, then pull again after discharge in April to start the clean up process?

Is there any benefit to pulling them more frequently if I am not planning on getting any credit for at least 6 months to a year after discharge other than possibly trying to rent a house instead of this apartment we are in?

What do you all think?

How often do the rest of you check your reports/scores?

[chpxiii]

Go ahead and pull all three scores from MyFico.com to get your true FICO score along with your credit report. That'll cost you about $50 bucks.

If it's been over a year, you can get a free credit report, (without FICO score) from https://www.annualcreditreport.com. Again, that's just the report without score. You're going to have to pay for your score at MyFico.com.

If all you want to do is monitor your reports, other credit report monitoring services may be alright just for monitoring your reports. Ignore the "scores" they give you. This is what I plan on doing.

My suggestion, and this is just a suggestion.

Get your three reports with scores now from MyFico.com.
You can start the clean up process with this.
When you get discharged, get another report for each of your 3 reports with scores. Then you may want to consider a credit report monitoring place like CreditKeeper and TrueCredit just for the reports themselves - not the scores. Then check your scores either quarterly or semi-annually - depending on how much money you want to spend and how anxious you are to actually see your scores.

I bought my scores and reports in September from MyFico.com. I plan on buying them again. Then go through a credit monitoring service (I haven't decided yet which one) just to monitor my reports while I clean them up. Then purchase my FICO scores and reports from MyFico.com around summer time.

The benefit would be to watch how your credit reports get cleaned up. You may not be applying for credit for a while, but you need to monitor your reports because when something gets changed, it may not have been changed correctly and so it may still be reporting incorrectly. You need to know this as soon as possible so you can start taking action to get it corrected yet again.