What is credit monitoring?
Those television commercials about wrecked credit that get lodged in your head for weeks sure are annoying. But they do have a shred of redeeming truth: unless you want to wind up schlepping meals and perfecting your pirate accent, you better keep your credit in line. Bad credit can result in unfavorable interest rates that cost you thousands when you take out a mortgage or student loans. It could block you from getting that swank apartment you’ve been pining for. And it can be a black mark on your record that prevents you from landing your dream job. So it pays to know the essentials of your credit report and related score, the behaviors that can make your score rise or plummet, and the services that help you keep an eye on your credit. We’ll break it all down for you here with—we promise—no more links to mind-numbing jingles. Your credit report is a summary of your borrowing and repayment history—any new accounts, closed accounts, unpaid bills, late bills, and other activity. If you
All three credit bureaus, Experian, TransUnion and Equifax, offer credit monitoring services. They cost between $5 and $15 per month per person. Below are the features that make up a credit monitoring service. See a side-by-side comparison of each company’s service in the Exhibits section. • Unlimited Access to Your Credit Report and Your Credit Score (Most Services) Read your credit report any time. Watch your score change day-by-day. If you see yourself reading your own credit report more than once a month, this may save you some money. Keep in mind: You have at least three opportunities a year to view your credit report for free. You can purchase your credit report for $10 to $15. • Automatic Alerts of Changes to Your Credit Receive an e-mail every time there are changes to your credit report. Be alerted about new lines of credit, negative reports from your creditors and more. Credit companies attempt to sell you on this feature by playing on your fears: You need to know immediately
Consumer credit reporting agencies offer to “monitor” your credit for a fee. Credit monitoring services can be costly. These services cost anywhere between $43.80 per year to nearly $150.00 per year depending upon the provider. Typically, these services say they will notify you if anything unusual or suspicious appears on your consumer credit report. Don’t bother with credit-monitoring services. Instead, you should monitor your own credit. How to Monitor Your Own Credit You can monitor your own credit and make sure that your record represents you fairly and accurately by ordering and regularly reviewing your consumer credit reports from the three major reporting agencies. You can request a report from each of the three consumer credit reporting bureaus at the same time. The advantage of reviewing the three reports at once is that you can get a complete picture of your consumer credit report history that could be reported to others. However, if you want to monitor the accuracy of your c
