Recently started hunting for a new DD and I want something newer and nice so I will be making payments on it, thinking S197, maybe new mustang, but that's another thread.

So now that im looking at loans, I pulled my credit score to check for any surprises and of course there were two. Im thinking Id like to keep a closer eye on my credit score and was wondering what you quys are using if you are.

I used credit karma since its the new one with all the commercials and it seems to work well and didnt cost me a dime which is nice, just want to see if maybe there is something better to use.

Also any recommendations on an institution for auto loans, Im thinking PenFed but Im open to advice.

 

Some mouth-breather who works(worked?) at my bank took a laptop home and got it stolen/lost, so I've been getting free Experian monitoring for almost 2 years. It's kind of cool to get monthly reports telling me that nothing's changed, but I don't know that it's $15 per month cool.
It was kind of interesting to get a bunch of alert e-mails when stuff changed - I got an e-mail alert when my new oil company checked my credit, and a handful of e-mails involving a car loan I got last year.

I think it's really smart to check with Credit Karma or one of the other freebie sites periodically just to head off BS before it becomes an issue. I'm kind of on the fence about paying for the service - probably will pass when the free service runs out.

 

Hopefully you know you can get a free credit report from each of the three reporting companies once a year, and so by staggering them, you get a report every 4 months for free.

 

But it is reactive. Nobody wants to find out 3 months after something bad happens.

 

True enough, but it's better than what 99% of the people do, AND did I mention it's FREE!

Obviously, there's no doubt a real time monitoring service will be more comprehensive, but as I have come to understand it, you need to be aware that not all monitoring services are equal by a long shot, and some may actually be no better than doing just that.

As my brother came to find out, when numerous items went undetected and unreported until after the fact, he had been operating under the false assumption that ALL activity would be detected and reported, when in fact with his 'less-than-THE-most-premium-plan-offered' monitoring plan, many activities could and would not be detected, nor reported. Definitely pays to read the fine print on those plans because their first priority sure as hell aint your credit rating. :-/

 

How do you get the report directly from the credit companies every 4 months? Is it one of those "free trial" things where you have to register then cancel before they start billing you? I went to their individual websites and didn't see anything that was actually free.

I started using Credit Karma when I found out about the site and I really like them, but it would be nice to see my other 2 scores.

 

credit karma doesnt give you a true credit score. it is a simulated one.

and you have to pay the credit bureaus for the numeric score. go to the ftc website and follow their links to credit reports. you get the reports for free, just not the score.

 

Like he said, they don't give your score for free, but you can get a report. Of course, since they are only providing the reports in compliance with operational mandates, they basically make the website process as unfriendly as possible so don't be surprised if you have to dig around a bit for the free reports.

 

oh it's not hard.

Free Credit Reports | Consumer Information

just do one of the three every four months.

 

Ive been pretty happy with credit karma it took me just a few minutes and they knew about a copay I forgot to pay like 5 years ago that I didnt know about, and had been turned over to collections.

So after taking care of that if my credit score goes up even just a few points I think it was worth it.

 

I use credit karma but there is a delay. My chase credit cards and inquiries took 3 months to pop up on there. Amex took about 2 months to pop up. So it's not instantaneous but it's free and I'm a fan.