burn_to_blue asked:


Should people subscribe to credit monitoring and fraud protecion services? Or are such companies just capitalizing on paranoia?

Darryl

John Goldman asked:


Recovering from identity theft is well discussed topic. There have been many steps taken to recover from identity thefts. Also many precautionary steps are also taken to stop identity thefts. After identity theft have also been discussed by many. But in all precautionary steps that are taken no such topic as credit monitoring services have been discussed.

Credit monitoring services prove to be useful in preventing your self from identity theft. They help you in monitoring your credit reports and notice every small change that takes place. Then you can have a rational check on your credit card report to make out fraud if any. There are cases where you come to know about the fraud when there have been many disastrous things already happened. Let us look at some brief information about credit monitoring services.

About credit monitoring services

To keep a clean credit report has become very essential these days. Ensuring our credit report has become difficult because of frauds and identity thefts. So there is important to have a credit monitoring services. Such services are often offered by credit reporting bureaus or banks or some other companies that offer efficient services. Such services include access for your credit report and your credit scores and you always have brief information about updates regarding your credit reports. You also notifications about changes online also.

This facilitates customers because just one click and you get to know your credit score. There have always been differences between people that say that these services are fruitful and some say that they are not cost worthy. But it has been observed that credit monitoring services have provided fool proof protection to customers who have experienced it so far.

Whenever any mishap or accident happens, then first thing that you do is contact credit providers and review your credit report. But most of times it is observed that may people don’t have regular checks of their reports and this causes loss in consistency in updating of changes that occur. Instead of this, if you have credit monitoring services you get daily look at your credit scores and can check for the faults if any.

Areas of use

Usually such systems are costly because they involve some amount of initial cost. But they have very long term profits. As the initial cost is high, some think that they are not cost worthy. But this cost counts when you experience identity theft. Usually normal person panics because he comes to know about the fraud at time when there have been many losses already occurred. But then, reviewing your credit report doesn’t prove to be that useful. So credit monitoring services are always useful. They provide various alarms and alerts wherever necessary.

These alerts help in recognizing the area of fraud and also in crime detection. When you sit for a talk with the credit card company, you should have good knowledge about your credit report so you can present your points very confidently. credit monitoring services not only helps in credit report updating but also in investigation process when identity theft is detected.



Donna

Ann Born asked:


n-up to get your free instant credit report. Most likely it’s a trap! Of course you have access to your credit report easily enough, but it’s the “free” part that is harder to find. The FTC made it official in 2005 that all 3 major credit bureaus must provide free access to our credit reports. But, this can only be once per year and not everyone has to give you “free” access.

Access to your no-strings attached, free instant credit report is a great help to all consumers. In the past, there was a fee required, not to mention the added hassle in order to get your credit report. The reports are the same now as before, but you, the object of the report, can now see what every bank, employer and landlord has always known.

Did you know that it is estimated that 70% of all credit reports have errors! Now, these range anywhere from typographical to pure fraud. Image being denied a car loan because of a problem on your credit that you had absolutely nothing to do with? This is one of the biggest fears in America and what easier way to combat this than to request an annual free instant credit report?

A quick search online will reveal many sites offering your report for free. But, most of these “free offers” are in-fact just trial offers. Forget to “opt-out” and your free instant credit report just became $29.99 on your Visa.

IMPORTANT!

Over 50% of the web sites offering “Free Instant Credit Reports” are operated by the major credit bureaus.

There is only one site that can honestly provide a no-strings attached free instant credit report, and that is straight through the FTC. They can be found at http://www.annualcreditreport.com. I don’t know of any other web sites that truly offer free instant credit reports.

You should find the website fairly user-friendly. More importantly the FTC is not out to get your personal information or sell you something! Remember, the FTC will never try to get your personal information through email or a pop-up ad either.

Just a few last reminders to help protect you before you hit “submit” for your free instant credit report. You will not be penalized for requesting a copy of your credit as long as you do so just once per year. However, further requests will cost you money and credit points.

Personally, I think that penalty is ridiculous, but who am I to decide? Instead of battle the issue, I subscribe to a credit monitoring site. Yes, it costs money, but this way I can monitor my credit as I need to. It’s worth the money.



Regina

Lisa Nichols asked:


Credit monitoring helps people improve their credit score. Although credit monitoring gets a lot of attention for its ability to stop identity fraud in its tracks, it does a lot more than provide advanced identity theft protection. A superior credit monitoring program will help customers understand what negatively impacts their credit report and what customers can do to improve their customer score and get the best loan rates.

Factors that Improve a Credit Score

Advanced credit monitoring programs allow users to view their current report and offers suggestions for ways to improve their credit score. Experian’s Triple Advantage credit monitoring service provides input and ideas that are specific to the user. Reasons for a good, very good or excellent credit score might include paying bills on time each month. Having two or more credit cards tells lenders and creditors that a person is likely a good credit risk who will use additional lines of credit responsibly. Another factor that improves a credit score includes no judgments, bankruptcies or liens on the credit report.

Factors That Cause Credit Score Problems

Experian’s Triple Advantage credit monitoring service also provides information about credit score problems. The credit monitoring service provides helpful advice on what items to correct to boost a credit history and to get the best loan rates. Credit score problems might include overall balances that are too close to overall credit limits. Low credit limits on credit cards and loans will also negatively impact a credit score and make it difficult to get the best loan rates. High balances on credit cards make lenders worry that the borrower will overextend themselves and be unable to pay off additional debts.

Experian Triple Advantage Credit Monitoring Helps Prevent Identity Theft

In addition to using Experian’s Triple Advantage credit monitoring to get the best rates on loans and credit cards, the service also provides identity theft protection. The credit monitoring program provides customers with alerts about suspicious activities on a credit report. The identity theft protection tool provides customers with peace of mind and ensures that credit histories stay safe.



Thomas

Lara Sawyer asked:


It would be already out-of-date to start this article stating that internet has become a popular tool for commerce and shopping. Truth is that almost all people in some way use the internet in a manner that affects their economy and finances. However there are still some people who are reluctant to resort to the internet when they need to obtain something that they cannot get at local stores while there are others that do not go to stores anymore and shop online even for bread and butter.

Online shopping has advantages and disadvantages. Let us analyze and ponder them to see if that reluctance is justified. The main reasons why people hesitate when shopping on the internet is that they fear fraud or scams both with the product and with the credit card and also because even if the vendor is a legitimate company the product is not physically there for them to touch, compare, examine, etc. Of course, people who are hesitant about internet purchases are also hesitant about catalog purchases or phone purchases.

Some Advantages

When purchasing online it is much easier to compare prices and product specifications because the amount of available information exceeds what the vendors and salesmen can provide you when you visit a store or more importantly, the amount of information they are willing to share with you.

Also, the costs are reduced both for you since there is no need for you to travel to the store, spending time and money and for the merchant whose costs are reduced in terms of personnel, rent, electricity, etc. This cost reduction shows on the prices you can obtain for the products you see that are usually up to 20% lower on e-stores when compared to local merchants.

Disadvantages

The delivery cost issue may or may not be a disadvantage depending on how you see it. Truth is that with regular stores you just walk by, enter the store, select the product, pay for it and take it home. If you do not need to travel to it or if you can reach it by walking, then there are no costs in terms of transportation for small items. When it comes to furniture, house appliances and similar items, the delivery may be charged apart or the store may say it is on them but either way, you will pay for it (it may be included in the price).

With online stores, the problem is that there are always delivery costs unless the company has a spot where you can pass and collect the goods. Moreover, these companies usually hire third party’s transportation and that increases the costs. Yet, given that on e-stores you usually get lower prices, though you need to take the delivery costs into consideration when comparing, chances are you will still get a great price. Moreover, some credit cards provide insurance so you know that the product will be safe during transportation, no matter where you live.

The main disadvantage or worry that purchases on the web with credit cards present is fraud and identity theft. Though many security measures have been taken by credit card companies to avoid such events, the risk is still present and you should only use your card on sites you trust. Some credit card companies also offer insurance to protect you from this kind of fraud.

As regards to identity theft, the only advice we can give is to avoid providing personal data (especially the social security number) to unknown sites and to keep an eye on your credit report by requesting a copy from time to time to make sure nobody is using your personal information for other purposes than those authorized by you. There are also credit monitoring services you can hire that can alert you if such events occur.



Nancy

SANJAY KAK asked:


This page is dedicated to credit monitoring.The information on this page is about what is credit monitoring and why it is important to have eye on your credit score. Credit monitoring helps in identifying lapses committed by you such as late payments, missed payments, wrong information reported against your credit account and also to cross verify your existing credit information.

Any negative information reported against your credit account will drag your credit score down. The lower credit score means lenders will charge you higher interest rate on loan and credit card balances. Lower credit score also means less options of getting loan from lenders. Monitoring your credit account is also helpful in identifying wrong information being reported in your account or worse finding any fraudulent activity against your financial account. It is pro-active step to guard your credit score and ensure you catch issues up-front.

What is identity theft?

Identity theft has become a worldwide issue and government and private cooperate companies are engaged against hackers who are stealing personal and financial information of net users. Hackers who are after people’s personal and financial information attack every year credit card companies and financial institutions. This attack is not limited to companies but also to individual web users. The malicious cookies, viruses are embedded in download code to steal your information. This information is used for variety of reasons ranging from buying car, applying credit card to bank loans. Before fraud is unearthed hackers have already done the damage. In this situation credit monitoring becomes very important. You can see activity on your credit card account, bank account and retail accounts. Any activity, which you do not have made and don’t recognize, should be reported immediately to the cardholder company also to credit reporting agencies. The quick action will help in stopping hackers stealing your information also avoids damage to your credit account.

About FICO scoring Model

The FICO scoring model has eight categories to classify an individuals credit health. The FICO based credit score ranges between 350 to 850. Each range is labeled under credit score category.

350 – 499 500-549 600-649 650-699 700-749 750-799 800 – Above

 Credit monitoring helps you identify the fraud against your credit bureau account, wrong information reported against your account and option of protecting your credit score.

 



Kimberly