myFICO Review—How Does This Industry Leader Measure Up?

The effects of identity fraud can be long-lasting. It can mess up your social security benefits, prevent your kids from getting financial aid for college, and even make it challenging for you to secure a job—not to mention that it makes you incur in unexpected expenses.

Just in 2018, there were 14.4 million victims of Identity theft in the United States, which is quite worrisome.

Fortunately, identity theft protection services (like myFICO) can help bring you peace of mind, as well as prevent you from becoming a victim. Plus, as users’ reviews for myFICO like to highlight, they also tell you pretty much all there is to know about your credit.

Check out this article to find out more about myFICO.

What Is myFICO?

myFICO is the consumer division of Fair Isaac (the company that created the FICO score). It’s a credit report monitoring service that helps you track your FICO scores, as well as prevent identity theft by scanning the dark web and alerting you if your personal information falls into the wrong hands.

Features

There is a whole list of myFICO ID protection features, which ensure that your credit and personal information is always safe and secure.

Monitoring

myFICO monitoring services help you keep tabs on your credit files at Experian, TransUnion, and Equifax. It notifies you if there are any changes, such as inquiries, new accounts created in your name, late payments, etc.

The company also helps you keep track of how credit changes affect your FICO score.

Additionally, myFICO will search for potential threats to your identity by scouring websites, chatrooms, public records, and internet databases that may buy and sell your personal information.

If a threat is found, myFICO will alert you.

Furthermore, you’ll also get access to the FICO Score Simulator—which can run up to 24 different scenarios, such as taking out a mortgage or getting a credit card limit increase, to see how that may affect your FICO—and the FICO Score Analyzer.

ID Recovery

In the event of identity theft or fraud, myFICO will be on hand to help you with restoration and insurance.

It’ll reimburse you for expenses and legal costs incurred by fraud, hacking, skimming, embezzlement, phishing, forgery, data breaches, and identity theft.

myFICO also has US-based identity theft experts who are on call 24/7. They can walk you through the entire process and will save you countless hours by completing paperwork, making phone calls, and doing all the heavy lifting, so you don’t have to.

Additionally, myFICO Family plan grants you lost wallet assistance, which will help you recover lost items like credit and debit cards, driver’s license, identity documents, social security cards, and many more (although some restrictions may apply).

As part of myFICO fraud protection services, the company also offers cash recovery in the event of an authorized electronic fund transfer—although this feature is not included in all myFICO plans.

Insurance

Identity theft insurance is typically designed to cover some of the costs and expenses related to identity theft—like repairing your credit scores and reclaiming your financial wellbeing.

myFICO gives you up to $1 million in ID theft insurance.

This includes coverage for out-of-pocket expenses, like hiring experts for recovery services, legal and notary fees, private investigator charges (if necessary), and even reimbursement for lost wages.

Alerts

Although myFICO alert suite sends over 30 different types of alerts to keep you in the loop about your credit, identity, and scores, it’s important to note that not all data is monitored or reported.

That being said, myFICO does notify you about new credit inquiries, addresses, and changes to public records from all three major credit bureaus. It also gives you credit report data alerts, as long as your credit report has the minimum information required to calculate FICO scores.

You can receive all these alerts via email or through the myFICO app.

myFICO Downsides

• Not all credit data or transactions are monitored, for example, you won’t get an alert for changes in your credit limits nor for any new employment listed on your credit report.
• The monthly subscription renews automatically unless you cancel myFICO, which you can do either online, through the app, or by calling. No refunds are available.
• It’s more expensive than other entry-level ID theft protection plans.

Plans & Pricing

myFICO has three subscription plans for you to choose from:

So, which myFICO plan is best?

It depends on your needs and your credit goals. It may also be that you’re not interested in paying for a monthly subscription since you just want a one-time report. In that case, myFICO can offer you:

One-Bureau Credit Report – It costs $19.95 and it’s from the bureau of your choice.

Three-Bureau Credit Report – For $59.85, you get a report from all three bureaus (Experian, TransUnion, and Equifax), so you can make comparisons, understand score differences, spot and fix errors before meeting with a lender.

Support

In some of the myFICO reviews we read, users complained that sometimes it’s hard to get a hold of the support team—and perhaps they’re right.

Unfortunately, myFICO isn’t available 24/7. They only have email and phone support available from Monday to Friday between 6 AM and 6 PM (PT), and Saturdays from 7 AM to 4 PM.

They claim to respond to inquiries within 24 hours, so we decided to put that to the test, and sent an email. A support consultant named Lizzie got back to us 14 hours later—which is perfectly within their promised time frame, but also a little less speedy than we’d like (especially in the event of an actual ID theft emergency).

However, myFICO does have a FAQ section on their website, plus the added benefit of a community forum that has over 750,000 members with whom you can troubleshoot any problems with myFICO and get peer support for more complex credit questions.

Ease of Use

myFICO provides monthly or tri-monthly updates depending on which plan you use. Plus, your monthly subscription gives you access to the Education Center, which offers information so you can learn more about credit, FICO scores, and credit reports from the three major credit bureaus.

Overall, the straightforward setup and the extensive education material make myFICO incredibly easy to use.

myFICO User Reviews

myFico has earned 3.5 stars on Consumer Affairs, based on 22 user ratings.

Negative myFICO reviews tend to complain about the price being high; the information, unclear; and the customer support, hard to reach.

As for the positive comments, users frequently praise how easy it is to use, the accuracy of the information, and their overall trustworthiness.

Plus, myFICO has great overall identity theft protection reviews on third-party sites like MoneyUnder30 and DoughRoller, and an A+ rating on BBB.

Is myFICO Worth It?

myFICO provides easy access to your FICO scores, which will go a long way in helping you apply for loans and mortgages. You can look forward to detailed credit reports and monitoring services for your credit files at Experian, TransUnion, and Equifax. 

myFICO also scans thousands of sites to make sure your personally identifiable information isn’t being sold.

Although it is true that myFICO focuses more on repairing than protection and that its price is leaning towards the expensive side, if we weigh the pros and cons of myFICO, we at Web Tribunal conclude that the benefits they offer (including the educational resources) make myFICO well worth its cost.

Alternatives of myFICO

As part of our review for myFICO, we wanted to highlight a few of its alternatives, to give you the opportunity to see how it compares to others in the market.

Different services provide different ways to protect your identity and are worth exploring.

myFICO vs Experian

Experian has one of the best fraud protection services available (IdentityWorks) and is quite affordable—it offers a 30-day free trial and a premium membership for $19.99/month.

It has all the features we’ve come to expect, including dark web surveillance, tri-bureau credit monitoring, lost wallet assistance, and identity theft insurance. In fact, it also has the FICO Score Alerts, Tracking and Simulator services, so it’s pretty much the perfect alternative to myFICO.

However, Experian suffered a significant data breach in early 2020, and its reputation took a hit. This happened in South Africa and has remained underreported stateside.

Identity Guard vs myFICO

One of the highest rated identity theft protection services on the market, Identity Guard is somehow still more affordable than myFICO.

Identity Guard’s Ultra plan costs $29.99/month for individuals ($39.99/month for families).

It has advanced features—such as the IBM Watson AI, Safe Browsing Extension, and Social Media Insight Report—which help you identify potential data theft points, combat malicious software, and prevent cybercrimes.

Plus it also offers three-bureau credit monitoring and monthly credit reports.

myFICO vs Equifax

Both companies offer similar benefits, but if you’re looking for a more economical option—and you don’t mind the 2017 data breach episode—then Equifax is the option for you.

For example, both firms’ Premier plans include credit reporting, identity monitoring, ID restoration, and $1 million ID theft insurance. Yet, Equifax’s subscription costs $19.95/month, while myFICO’s membership fee is $39.95/month.

On the other hand, myFICO is a great option for accessing your FICO scores, which are used by almost 90% of credit lenders, so it’s very convenient to have that information easily available.

Final Verdict

The main benefit of using myFICO is getting a fuller, more in-depth picture of your credit health. 90% of the top lenders use FICO scores as their primary credit score, so it’s very useful to have it available at all times. Plus, you can also use myFICO’s tools to simulate credit events and gain insights into your creditworthiness.

Additionally, myFICO constantly monitors your credit scores from the top three credit bureaus, scans for your personal info online, and provides restoration services if you ever become a victim of identity fraud.

It’s benefits like this that make it one of the best identity theft protection services around and we hope our myFICO review highlighted that.