Credit Monitoring

Credit monitoring is a for-pay service that watches your credit report for changes and notifies you when any predetermined causes for concern about your credit arise. Credit monitoring is offered by all three credit reporting bureaus. Experian has five credit monitoring products; Equifax has four; and TransUnion has two.

A few other independent businesses offer credit monitoring products. You’ve probably seen some of the advertisements on TV.

Cost ranges between $10 and $23 a month. Most of these services offer an ID theft insurance or guarantee that is supposed to compensate you should your identity be fraudulently used.

For the monthly fee, you get access to your credit reports more frequently than the once-a-year free report. You also may expect notification if something negative shows up on a report or if a new account is opened or new credit line established. You can also gain access to your credit score (credit scores aren’t included in your free annual credit report), but not always your FICO score, which is the one used by most lenders.

Should you sign up?

No one but you should make that decision. Consider these facts as you contemplate a credit monitoring subscription:

• You can get one copy of your credit report for free each year from all three bureaus. These do not include credit scores.
• You can purchase any additional copies for $10 to $15.
• Ordering your own credit report does not affect your credit score.
• If you are going to read over your credit report more than once a month, and you are concerned about the information it contains, it might make sense to sign up for credit monitoring.
• If you have never had problems with your credit and have never even seen your credit report, it is unlikely there is anything on your report to worry about.
  • Have you ever been turned down for credit?
  • Are you turned down for the lower interest rates on purchase you make on credit?
  • Have you had problems renting or leasing?

If you answered ‘no’ to all three questions, you probably have a good credit record.

There is nothing wrong with being interested in knowing what your credit report contains and what your credit score is. If you know what credit reports involve and when credit monitoring is needed, you can avoid getting caught up in a sales pitch offered by companies whose business it is to sell you a monitoring product.

You can also check out our comparison site on credit monitoring. These services may be beneficial for the credit repair process to see all 3 of your credit scores increasing in one location.