Quagmire asked:


I have a few questions about raising my credit score. My score had been at 680 until recently, when I accepted a new job and relocated to a new city. In that process, I have applied for a mortgage, and have had a credit report run by about six different services ranging from DirecTV, T-mobile, the background check company for my new employer, etc. In this time I have seen my score go from a 680 to a 637. Ouch!!! Also, my credit monitoring service says that one reason for my low score is that I do not have a major credit card, as well as a few late payments in my past. So here are my questions:

1. How long can I expect those recent inquiries to pull down my credit rating? I would think that after a few months I could anticipate seeing it climb back up into that 680 range. Am I right?

2. With the 637 that I have now, is there some kind of credit card that I could get? I don’t really want a credit card, but just for the sake of having it to pull up my score I guess I could get one. What card should I apply for, and will this actually help?

3. My score is also not perfect because of a few late payments about 2 – 3 years ago, and two different disputes over very small amounts of money that the phone company decided I owed after having closed accounts (and moved, thus never having received any notifications until I started monitoring my credit). For how long can I expect those things to plague me?

Thanks! A good response to each of my 3 questions will earn 10 points

Raymond

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

Debbie Dragon asked:


Online credit monitoring services provide consumers with a suite of tools that help you to take proactive action in monitoring your credit report, while protecting your credit and identity information. Monitoring services notify you via email and/or wireless telephone instantly of any changes 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

What types of activity will generate a notification or alert from the credit monitoring services? As a member of 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 as you will know immediately if someone is attempting to use your good name to obtain financing. Time is of the essence when dealing with credit and identity fraud, and without credit monitoring services, it could be several months before you are aware of fraudulent activities.

Tips for Improving Credit

Most credit monitoring services also provide a host of tools that allow you to see what your credit score is at the current time, as well as steps you can take to improve it. Since credit scores are used to determine whether or not to extend individuals credit and at what interest rate; it’s important that your score be as high as possible.

Citi’s Credit Monitoring Service provides a very useful credit analyser 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 analyser 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.

You can also use the analyser to view 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. Extremely useful for individuals who are working diligently to improve their credit score, the Citi Credit Monitoring Service with credit analyser takes the guesswork out of improving your credit.

Identity Theft Insurance

Many credit monitoring services offer identity theft insurance programs that will reimburse members of the credit monitoring service up to a certain dollar amount if there are instances of fraud. (This service is not available to individuals living in the state of New York.) Typical expenses that are covered by identity theft insurance include:

Lost wages for several weeks of work missed if you take time off to deal with the fraud

Repayment of notary or certified mail costs for the delivery of affidavits.

Long distance phone costs in conjunction with the fraud

Attorney fees incurred for dealing with the fraud

Companies Offering Credit Monitoring Services

There are numerous companies that offer credit monitoring services. Most of the services offered are the same or similar, but a few companies having notable differences may make their services more beneficial to individuals.

If you’re looking to improve your credit, you want to be sure a credit monitoring service offers an analyser, like Citi Credit Monitoring Service, TrueCredit, or Identity Guard.

If you want to see results from all credit bureaus, then it’s important that you 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.



Vanessa