It wasn’t until recently that I dipped into the free credit services of Chase and Amex, the credit card companies primary to me. Not having applied for any credit for nearly six years, my wife and I each got a few new cards, so given they had our reports already, I figured we might as well enjoy the splash of alerts stemming from inquiries, new accounts and balance fluctuations that these free services have to offer, flavored by letting many “dormant” accounts report a balance.
Inspired by creating My Equifax accounts, we even signed up for the free Experian service with alerts and the bonus of a FICO 8 score every so often and the free Transunion reports while we were at it, not to forget Credit Karma that we hadn’t checked for years and which provides Equifax and Transunion data.
Of course "Through April 20, 2021, Experian, TransUnion and Equifax will offer all U.S. consumers free weekly credit reports through AnnualCreditReport.com to help you protect your financial health during the sudden and unprecedented hardship caused by COVID-19.” but no alerts.
On top of it, I got an iPhone 12 two weeks ago and am now more than before impressed by various apps, perhaps Chase’s Credit Journey in particular, and for Amex I agree that
Originally Posted by
cfabar1
I find the easiest way to find the FICO score with Amex is through the iPhone App, and not the website. If you want to view the fake score that they have, the website is easier than the app.
Yes, the bottom of the website lists CreditSecure (and MyCredit), but not FICO Score, while the app under Account lists FICO Score (and MyCredit), but not CreditSecure.
Originally Posted by
sdix
With all the CC companies now offering some level of "free" FICO scores my score bounces up and down like a yoyo. My paid for Amex Credit Secure seems the most reliable and consistent with some changes monthly but not drastic. The scores from Chase or Citi can easily be 50 or more points different. Worse thing is I hust applied for a refi since the rates are so so low - I got an immediate 30 point hit on Credit Secure.....
I am beginning to doubt whether I still need it, but it’s certainly nice having the three reports lined up in a single display.