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 them.
As you begin the repair process, you will be able to see the results by monitoring the changes to your credit score. For those of you in the repair process, you most likely will want to monitor your FICO score as you attempt to fix your credit. The FICO score is the score most widely used by lenders when ascertaining whether to approve you for a credit card or loan. This is important to note when shopping for a monitoring service as many products will give you their own score and not a FICO score.
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.
Charge offs- are when creditors write the amount the consumer owes, that has been uncollectable, off as a loss against their profits. This does not mean the consumer no longer owes the money. So how can credit monitoring stop identity theft? The answer is it can't. The only thing credit monitoring can do in regards to identity theft is to tell you that it is occurring. Another problem is many consumers buy credit monitoring because they are too busy to learn about their credit or just don't want the responsibility of understanding it. They think that paying a company to monitor their credit will insure them against any problems. In many cases when the monitoring company alerts them to a new collection or charge off if they don't recognize the account they just shrug it off as an error and don't investigate the occurrence until they have a problem getting financing. The lesson is even when having credit monitoring you need to understand, at least, the basics of credit to recognize what is a cause for concern.
If you detect or are alerted of major changes, this could be an indication of Identity Theft. Monitoring for changes is one of the best ways to alert you of the possibility of stolen identity. In addition to alerts, most monitoring services offer Identity Theft insurance that typically will reimburse you between $20,000 and $25,000 in damages.
Well, everything is business now a days, but still be thankful that they lend a hand to help you even if in a certain limited way. At least you yourself should have your own record of your credit history, so if there are errors on your credit report you can correct it. Always make a photocopy and keep the original with you. Make an organized file of all the records of your financial life, all the documents especially regarding payment, you should have the receipt or the fully paid statement of account. Whatever the transactions you make, be sure it is all documented in black and white.
As you begin the repair process, you will be able to see the results by monitoring the changes to your credit score. For those of you in the repair process, you most likely will want to monitor your FICO score as you attempt to fix your credit. The FICO score is the score most widely used by lenders when ascertaining whether to approve you for a credit card or loan. This is important to note when shopping for a monitoring service as many products will give you their own score and not a FICO score.
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.
Charge offs- are when creditors write the amount the consumer owes, that has been uncollectable, off as a loss against their profits. This does not mean the consumer no longer owes the money. So how can credit monitoring stop identity theft? The answer is it can't. The only thing credit monitoring can do in regards to identity theft is to tell you that it is occurring. Another problem is many consumers buy credit monitoring because they are too busy to learn about their credit or just don't want the responsibility of understanding it. They think that paying a company to monitor their credit will insure them against any problems. In many cases when the monitoring company alerts them to a new collection or charge off if they don't recognize the account they just shrug it off as an error and don't investigate the occurrence until they have a problem getting financing. The lesson is even when having credit monitoring you need to understand, at least, the basics of credit to recognize what is a cause for concern.
If you detect or are alerted of major changes, this could be an indication of Identity Theft. Monitoring for changes is one of the best ways to alert you of the possibility of stolen identity. In addition to alerts, most monitoring services offer Identity Theft insurance that typically will reimburse you between $20,000 and $25,000 in damages.
Well, everything is business now a days, but still be thankful that they lend a hand to help you even if in a certain limited way. At least you yourself should have your own record of your credit history, so if there are errors on your credit report you can correct it. Always make a photocopy and keep the original with you. Make an organized file of all the records of your financial life, all the documents especially regarding payment, you should have the receipt or the fully paid statement of account. Whatever the transactions you make, be sure it is all documented in black and white.
About the Author:
Frank Miller has a Debt Consolidation Blog & Finance, these are some of the articles: How To Prepare A Budget Using The Personal Budget Simulator You have full permission to reprint this article provided this box is kept unchanged.
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