There are online credit monitoring services available that provide consumers with a set of tools that help you to take proactive action in monitoring your credit report, while protecting your credit and identity information.
Monitoring services may notify you via email or wireless telephone instantly of any changes that are made to your credit report, which can help you identify fraudulent activity faster, and therefore minimize the negative impact it would have on your credit.
Notifications by Credit Monitoring Services
If you opt for such a service, you’ll receive notification whenever your address has been changed, a new account has been opened, or when an existing account has been changed. This is extremely valuable information and help to stop identity theft as you will know immediately if someone is attempting to use your good name to obtain financing. Without credit monitoring services, it could be several months before you become aware of fraudulent activities.
Tips for Improving Credit
The credit monitoring services also provide some tools that allow you to see what your credit score is currently, and what steps you can take to improve it.
Citi’s Credit Monitoring Service provides a very useful credit analyzer function that allows members to determine the effects of several types of activities on their credit score. For example, if you’re considering applying for a car loan, you can use the analyzer to determine how much of an impact applying will have on your score, as well as what would happen if you obtained the loan or applied and were denied the loan.
The analyzer can also be used to see how missing a payment or two might effect your score overall, or determine which activities will raise your score the most and how long it will take. This is extremely useful for individuals who are working diligently to improve their credit score.
Identity Theft Insurance
Identity theft insurance programs are also offered by these credit monitoring companies, that will repay its members up to a certain dollar amount if there are instances of fraud. (However, this service is not available to individuals living in the state of New York.)
Identity theft insurance typically covers the expenses for the following:
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Lost wages can be recovered for several weeks of work missed if you take time off to deal with the fraud
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Repayment of certified mail costs for the delivery of affidavits.
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Long distance phone costs in conjunction with the fraud
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Attorney fees incurred for dealing with the fraud
Companies Offering Credit Monitoring Services
Many companies are offering credit monitoring services. Most of their deals may be similar with only a few differences. If you’re looking to improve your credit, you want to be sure a credit monitoring service offers an analyzer, like Citi Credit Monitoring Service, TrueCredit, or Identity Guard.
In order to see the results from all credit bureaus, it’s better to select a company that provides access to all of the major credit bureaus and not just one. Equifax offers a credit monitoring service, but only for your credit information with Equifax. Each of the credit bureaus may report slightly different information, so you may want to go with a service that can provide access to all 3 of the major credit reports.
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