Importance Of Credit Monitoring

One of the most common questions I receive when talking to people is "Do I need to monitor my credit," or "Why should I monitor my credit". Both are great questions, and there are numerous reasons to subscribe to a credit monitoring program. One reason is for curiosity and education. Once you have signed up you have unlimited access to your credit reports, and your credit scores.

It is very nice to know exactly what your credit scores are at any given point. Not only is it nice to know, you will also know where you stand if you wanted to apply for credit, or make any large purchases such as a house, car or anything you plan to finance. You will know going in that if you have a great credit score, you will be getting a great interest rate. And If your credit is not up to par, you can take steps in fixing the problems.

Once you have access to your credit reports, you will then know exactly what is affecting your score in a positive and a negative. The positives will be paying on your debt on time, keeping a low balance on your credit cards, length you have had the accounts, the longer the better.

These are just some of the things that will help your credit score. Negatives would be not paying on time. Keeping a high balance, constantly applying for credit, having account that are not very old. And then there may be some that not even yours at all! This is really where credit report monitoring will can help you. There are millions of transactions that go on every day in which get reported to credit report bureaus.

Most of the time these are recorded accurately but there is always the chance that they are reported inaccurately. When this occurs another person's negative item may be placed on your credit reports, which in turn will have a negative effect on your credit score. If you did not check your credit reports regularly you would have no idea this was going on, and it could take you quite some time to get cleared up.

With a credit monitoring service you would know within 24 hours that a change was made to your report and you could log on to verify that this change is really you. Along these same lines a credit monitoring service can keep you're protected from ID theft. These are just a few of the benefits of signing up for a credit monitoring service. I have worked in the consumer credit world for over 10 years and it's the single most important service I feel that consumers can sign up for. Being proactive in knowing your credit scores and protecting yourself from ID theft will greatly help in securing your financial future.

2-12 each time you want to temporarily remove a freeze or apply for credit, or in some cases, apply for a job. U.S. PIRG opposes these fees because consumers shouldn’t have to pay to protect themselves for a problem they didn’t create. However, we recommend paying the fees for the peace of mind that comes from protecting yourself from new account identity theft.

Lock & Alert: January 31st is the launch date for Lock & Alert, a service that will let consumers lock and unlock their Equifax credit reports indefinitely for free. This service only blocks access to Equifax credit reports, not credit reports at the other two bureaus. Locks appear to block access to credit reports the same way freezes do.

However, freezes are a right by law and not conditional on terms set by companies. We will review the terms of service when they are made public to determine if it is a good option for consumers. As with a freeze, this lock is only for Equifax reports, so credit freezes are also needed with the two other bureaus.

“Blocking access to your credit report with one bureau but not the other two is like locking your front door but leaving your garage and back doors wide open,” said Litt. “That’s why state PIRGS are working with state policymakers to make credit freezes free at all three national credit bureaus. We didn't hire Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion to collect financial data about us, and we certainly didn't give them permission to lose it.

So shouldn’t we have a right by law to to keep our financial information private and secure for free, Our step-by-step guide for placing credit freezes with all three bureaus is available here. FAQs about the Equifax data breach are available here. U.S. PIRG is the federation of state Public Interest Research Groups. PIRGs are non-profit, non-partisan public interest advocacy organizations that stand up to powerful interests whenever they threaten our health and safety, our financial security, or our right to fully participate in our democratic society.

Having a healthy credit report and score is more important than ever, especially considering the number of businesses that rely on your credit score to approve your applications. Credit monitoring services allow you to keep an eye on your credit report and score. You can receive early warning of changes to your credit and respond accordingly.

Credit monitoring also allows you to detect instances of identity theft - one of the 10 biggest crimes. Protecting your credit from identity theft is key to ensuring thieves don’t run up big bills in your name and leave you to deal with the damage. When you’re shopping around for credit monitoring services pay attention to the fee - they may be free or may charge a monthly or annual fee. You'll to pay particular attention to the services you’ll be provided and whether the service covers all three credit bureaus or just one.

3 billion versus the cost of payday loans. Its responsible, tech-enabled online credit solutions provide immediate relief to customers today and help them build a brighter financial future. The company is committed to rewarding borrowers’ good financial behavior with features like interest rates that can go down over time, free financial training and free credit monitoring. Elevate’s suite of groundbreaking credit products includes RISE, Elastic and Sunny.