Credit Monitoring Service Definition

What is a credit monitoring service, A credit monitoring service tracks your credit for any significant changes such as new accounts or a dramatic increase in your balances. Credit monitoring doesn’t prevent identify theft, fraud or unauthorized use of your credit or identify, but it does report it so you can remedy the problem before there’s too much damage.

Some services create personalized reports that recommend ways for you to improve your credit score. 600 per year. They review reports from one or all of the credit monitoring agencies and notify you of potentially fraudulent activity. You also can monitor your credit for free and on your own, using many of the same tools that credit monitoring services use. Other ways to monitor your credit include requesting a free copy of your credit report, which you can order every year from each of the three credit bureaus.

You also can set up automatic notifications through your credit card, bank or other financial institution to alert you of transactions made on your account, withdrawals, or purchases that exceed a specified amount, or other activity. If you’re worried about your credit score, there are several ways to improve it, including these seven simple steps. If you’ve signed up for a credit monitoring service, the company regularly reviews your credit activity for anything suspicious, such as new accounts opened or large purchases made.

For example, if a new credit card is opened in your name, the credit monitoring service notes this when it reviews your file and alerts you to a potential red flag. Then, the company sends you a notification of the activity, and if you didn’t open the account, you’ll need to take steps yourself to report it to the authorities or take other action.

But the letters offering free credit monitoring highlight a number of company names, none of which may be familiar to the recipients. Some people for example, received letters from a place called Rockwood Urology Center but the letter gives no return address and one recipients says she's never been to a urology clinic. The letter refers to an affiliation with Community Health Systems, but recipients say that, too, is an unfamiliar name.

Then there's the instruction to go to the website of yet another company-Kroll for the ID monitoring service. The only return address is in small print on the back of the envelope - -Secure Processing Center in Suwanee, GA. A check online confirmed that Rockwood Urology Center has the same address other medical clinics in Spokane, WA. It turned out to be the same location as an eye clinic. A call to clinic's phone number lead to a recorded message about the data breach.

A call to Kroll, using the number listed on their official website -provided enough information to confirm the credit monitoring letter is legit. Further digging produced more information about the extent of this latest data breach. The cyber attack hit 206 hospitals in 29 states. It affects the personal information of 4.5 million patients who received any service from any physician linked to Community Health Systems.

Some of people say it's been at least a decade since they were treated and they've long-since relocated. If you get a letter and you want the free credit monitoring, it's probably good to sign up as soon as possible so you don't forget. A Kroll spokesperson could not tell me if there is a deadline to respond to the offer.

With data breaches becoming almost routine lately, we're all reminded to review our financial statements carefully every month and look for anything that shouldn't be there. Also get a free copy of your credit report. By law you're entitled to one free report every year from each of the 3 credit bureaus.

One popular strategy is to order 1 report from a different reporting agency every 4 months. That way, you'll have a snapshot throughout the year and you'll be able to catch irregularities and errors, and get them cleared up before they jeopardize a major loan or purchase. As a result of the CHS breach, 5 patients in Alabama are suing the company, over what they call a failure to protect sensitive patient information. Some cyber security experts warn the Chinese hackers suspected in the breach are highly sophisticated and will likely target other medical facilities in search of technical and proprietary information.

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