FICO Scores

[CA Living]

From what I understand, Discover does not charge you anything at all to get your free FICO Score.  They share with you the FICO Score they have purchased to make their credit decisions on you, their customer.  They then pass this score along to you at no cost to you at all.  I do wish that USAA would make this available, too. 

[Norman W]

Please read my post concerning credit scores. I think you all will be happy.

[Briana Hartzell USAA]

Thank you all for your thoughts and feedback. I have passed this discussion onto the credit department. Keep the feedback and ideas for improvement coming!

If you would like to share more details about your ideas, feel free to use this form.

Thank you all for your membership!

[FeedbackFan]

At the VERY least, I wish USAA would offer some sort of FICO tutorial or an informational area on FICO scores, how they work and how the credit reporting bureaus work.  Would be a valuable perk for your members and allow them to better "talk the talk" when speaking with USAA credit employees.

Ideally though, USAA would offer more to their customers.  Seems ridiculous that by law we are allowed to get a free copy of our credit report annually (from each bureau), but we have to pay for access to the credit score, which is really what lenders rely on.  I would support USAA if they pushed Congress to include one free look at our credit scores (from each bureau) each year.  Alternatively, I would gladly pay something to USAA if they could offer a product that would provide FICO scores from all 3 bureaus at a reduced cost to what I would pay each bureau individually.  Certainly with USAA's customer base, they could strike a deal with the bureaus?

Please discuss this USAA and come up with an offering to your customers. 

[Senex0853]

     As already noted, at least two of the major credit card issuers (Discover and Barclay's) are offering their customers FICO scores on a monthly basis.

     While I am, most certainly, old enough to well appreciate the fact that there is really no such thing as "a free lunch," I'm also old enough (and sophisticated enough) to realize that the costs associated with providing this service cannot be significant.

     I would think that for those of USAA's customers who do not ordinarily carry a large balance, that having this feature available from a competitor of USAA could be a determining factor when it comes to the question of "Do I keep my account here? Or, do I move it elsewhere?"

     There is, as I'm sure you know, that old saying that has something do do about being "penny wise"; this very well could be one of them!

[Ima HappyMember]

I agree that adding the FICO Score would be a great benefit for USAA members.  I LOVE and constantly use the USAA app and the USAA online web page to manage my finances.  I pull most all of my accounts from other financial institutions and debitors into the USAA's Money Manager so that I have a one-stop-shop place to manage my finances.  Having easy access to my FICO score would only strengthen USAA's widget portfolio (and for those who still use harcopy bank statements).

I am also a member of Pentagon Federal Credit Union and they now provide FICO score!  I never thought I would see the day that PENFED would have an advantage of USAA in the online banking arena. 

If you want a beta tester....let me know!!!  I enjoy beta testing USAA technological products :)

C'mon USAA, let's do this!! :)

[IT Guy at KCVA]

Did you know that the Pentagon Federal Credit Union also offers free FICO scores?  I wish USAA would also.

[CA Living]

I've heard too, that Discover, Barclays, and Pen Fed are sharing their FICO Scores with their customers, and I've also heard this is really important because this is the score these banks are using to make their credit decisions about us, their customers.  I just heard that USAA is starting to share an "educational" score with some of their members, called the Vantage score. From what I can see online, this really isn't the score that banks are using, and I doubt it's the score that USAA is using to make decisions on us, their members.  What good is an "educational" score, if it's not the score that USAA uses to make decisions on us?  

Come on USAA, do the right thing - share the real score with us - the one that you use, and don't try to placate us with an educational score.  We're waiting, we're here, your devoted members. 

[sfess]

In the news yesterday, JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America and Ally Financial are also now going to offer the FICO score to customers. Would love to see this option from USAA.

[Norman W]

If you will notice an email just sent out by USAA they will be in the near future be giving us the Vantage Credit Score which is much more reliable and more accurate than FICO scores. FICO is usually used by credit card issuing banks only, whereas, usually when you apply for a home loan (which is much more important than a credit card) the bank that will be checking your credit score to see if you qualify for a home loan based on credit scores and numerous other financial data, they use the Vantage Credit Score. So, I guess, all the posts on this subject paid off since USAA "will" be, in the near future be giving us our Vantage Credit Score for free. I am glad that that chosen to give the Vantage Credit Score because it is used in situations where accuracy is most essential. If you disagree with that statement, as any home lending institution if they use the FICO score or the Vantage score pertinent to ascertaining if you qualify for your home loan. When people say that a single voice will get you no where; I think this has now proven that statement wrong. Thank you, USAA for providing the Vantage score and send them out to us as soon as possible. I check my credit scores many times throughout the month and get the annual credit reports because I don't want some jerk stealing my identify and making off with all my money, my credit integrity, my savings account and most importantly, my identity.