The main free credit reports as you all know come from Equifax, TransUnion and Experian. You are entitled to one free credit report per year from each agency if you visit the government mandated site at AnnualCreditReport.com. However, if you want to monitor your credit more closely you may want to get monitoring service from one or more of the bureaus. Equifax is one of the big 3 credit bureaus that has authorized giving away annual free reports. In order to get your credit report, you have to request it either through mail, by phone or online through the AnnualCreditReport.com site which was mandated by the FTC.
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 charge off.
TransUnion Credit Monitoring is the monitoring arm of TransUnion the second of the big 3 credit bureaus. Their service also detects and prevents fraud on your records and protects your credit records from being stolen. They also monitor your credit if there is a change on your credit record and credit history records. But again to get these premium services you have to pay.
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.
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 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.
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.
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 charge off.
TransUnion Credit Monitoring is the monitoring arm of TransUnion the second of the big 3 credit bureaus. Their service also detects and prevents fraud on your records and protects your credit records from being stolen. They also monitor your credit if there is a change on your credit record and credit history records. But again to get these premium services you have to pay.
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.
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 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.
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.
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Frank Miller has a Debt Consolidation Blog & Finance, these are some of the articles: Essential Aspects Of Property Surveyors You have full permission to reprint this article provided this box is kept unchanged.
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