Hello, and welcome to this video walk thru of what you can expect when you select Equifax Credit Watch Gold.  With this product, you’ll be getting free online credit reports from the three major credit bureaus, free access to your FICO Score, and 3-in-one Monitoring service.  Equifax Credit Watch Gold is free for 30 days to try out.  If you would like to continue with the service after the first free month, the cost would be $14.95 per month.

The first page prompts you for basic personal information.  If you haven’t used Equifax Credit Watch Gold before, you’ll need to create a new account before you can proceed.  You’ll need to fill in all the text fields that have an asterisk next to them.  So this will include your name and address and stuff.  Click on the continue button once you’ve completed all that.

The second page which you’ll be brought to will prompt you for information related to your identity.  Most important will be your social security number.  This will be the first thing they ask you.  You’ll also need to provide your date of birth as well as your home phone number.  After that’s done, you’ll need to create your account with a unique username and password.  You’ll probably want to write equthis down somewhere so you don’t forget it.  This username and password will allow you to login to your Equifax Credit Watch Gold account should you want to view your credit report information again.  At the bottom of the page you can take a quick skim through their legal jargon, things like privacy notices and terms of use.  These are pretty standard for every company.  Select the “I Accept” radio button and click on the red continue button.

With all the information gathered, Equifax Credit Watch Gold should be able to quickly retrieve your credit file.  They’ll confirm it with a quick survey.  You can fill it out quickly and continue.

One last step before you get your free credit reports and Fico Score.  Equifax Credit Watch Gold will ask you for your credit card information, should you choose to continue with its service after the trial 30 days are up.  They take all the major credit cards.  Your credit card will be automatically charged after the first month, unless you take the appropriate action to cancel the service after the free trial is up.  Click the Submit Order button what’s the information is completed.  You’ll be directed to a confirmation page.  Note down your transaction code should any issues come up in the future.  It’ll be your reference number.

Your access to your Equifax Credit Watch Gold reports is now complete.  The first page you should be brought to should be your credit watch page.  It basically summarizes everything in your Equifax Credit Watch Gold account.  Any messages or monitoring alerts that you may have should be displayed here.  Prominently displayed on the right hand side of the screen is your free FICO Score.  You can click on the link found inside this module for a detailed explanation and breakdown of your FICO Score.

Your score summary will explain where your particular score falls under FICO’s metric of scoring.  There are 5 different levels of where you’re particular FICO Score may fall under.  Generally, the higher the score the better.  There are many factors that affect your FICO Score.  A brief summary is given to you.  Some factors include the amount of debt you have, amount of new credit, your payment history, and your length of credit.

Your credit report is a very straightforward file.  It basically records your entire credit history.  From what accounts you had and have to records of how you manage your finances.  Creditors, or anybody that’s inquiring about your credit status, will have a complete assessment to how much of a credit risk you are.  You personally should look at your credit report every so now and then just to make sure there aren’t any reporting errors.  These discrepancies adversely affect your credit but can be quickly resolved when spotted in time.

Anything that you’ve done related to finances, your credit report will include.  So your file will have all the addresses of the various locations you’ve lived at, accounts you’ve opened up, payment information and records.  You’ll also be able to see who’s been checking up on your credit file.  This may happen when you apply for a new bank or credit card account.  You also see it happening when you finance the purchase of a new house or car.  Check all these out.  Print out a copy of your credit reports, from all three credit bureaus, and file it away for safe keeping.

Now back to the FICO Score Power page.  You can find the tab at the top on the Equifax Credit Watch Gold website.  A couple of the subsections on this page include summaries of factors used to determine your score, previews of what lenders see when they pull up your credit file.  These Equifax Credit Watch Gold features help you better understand where your credit stand.  Click on the link that’s labeled, “Factors Affecting Your Score,” and you’ll be brought to a page with a more thorough explanation.

For this particular score, Equifax Credit Watch Gold breaks it down into it’s components.  Equifax Credit Watch Gold explains how some factors are hurting this FICO score, and how others are helping this FICO score.  As you can see from this example, the FICO score of 771 is a great score in the spectrum of FICO scores.  One thing that’s hurting this FICO score from being higher is that a new credit account was recently opened.  Opening too many new credit accounts hurts your score.  This particular new credit account was opened just four months ago. 

Factors that help this FICO score of 771 to be rated as “Great” include a consistent payment history for credit accounts, limited credit use, long account history, and recent use of credit cards.  To summarize, this FICO score shows that this person pays his bills on time, uses his credit in a controlled and manageable fashion, and has been using credit for a long time.