2. Credit Monitoring - How does it protect you from
identity theft and what service does it really offer? We
have been asked over the past 5 years if Credit
Monitoring is worth having and if we can provide this
service. Credit Monitoring is a huge business and with
scores being so important it will continue to grow. How
many times have you seen promotional offers for the
opportunity to get free monitoring of your credit
profile? It is so confusing for most to even understand
their credit reports let alone what the monitoring
services provide and how they can help. The information
given by these services is difficult to decipher and can
sometimes do more to confuse and scare consumers
than help
4. I have been studying these services and learning about
them for many years now. The one question I have is
how can finding out you are a victim of identity theft or
credit card fraud protect you? Once you know you are a
victim it is already too late. When you begin to see signs
of identity theft on your credit report the damage has
already been done. Logically expecting Credit
Monitoring to protect you from identity theft would be
like studying for an exam after you fail. Identity theft is a
process and the last result of it is seeing accounts on
your credit report that do not belong to you. These
accounts are usually in default with late payments or
have gone to the point of collection or
6. When lenders report to the credit agencies, they are not
obligated to report to all 3 of the national credit
reporting agencies. For this reason, it would be a good
idea to get a copy of your report from each reporting
agency. This will allow you see what information is being
reported to each agency, and spot problems or false
information that only one agency is reporting about.
7. Experian Credit manager and credit check monitoring is
from the last of the big 3 credit reporting agencies.
Experian maintains the credit information on individual
consumers this includes the closed credit accounts, any
court activity like bankruptcies and payment history. The
credit report in this agency is very important since
insurers, employers, and prospective lenders rely on
these reports so that they can be given a permission to
open an account or if you qualify to be hired as worker
or creditor.
8. We are consistently approached by consumers with this
question "I had an alert from my monitoring company.
What does this mean?". Credit monitoring companies
provide basic updates to you about changes in your
credit. Depending on the company hired and the specific
program they offer will determine how you are updated
and what information they will give you. Some
companies only provide you with info about 1 credit
reporting agency. Since there are 3 credit reporting
agencies Trans Union, Experian, and Equifax this is just a
piece of the information needed to really monitor your
credit profile. One of the risks you take when hiring a
monitoring service, that provides you with only one
report
9. update, is not being able to see if a collection is reported
on all bureaus. Many smaller creditor's like
Verizon,Doctors,Dentists, and Health Clubs don't want to
pay the credit reporting agencies to provide each credit
profile with this collection info since they will have to
pay 3 times for this service. The result is they typically
pay one reporting agency instead of all three and only
put the collection on that one credit report. If you have
picked the report that isn't updated you will not be
aware of this problem until all three reports are pulled.
In this case the whole point of monitoring your credit
will be lost.
10. Many services offer you the ability to see your report
from all 3 credit bureaus, check and monitor your scores
and setup email alerts to alert you of major changes
happening to your report or score. You can also get
Identity Theft insurance in the event you are the victim
of stolen identity.