The number of people who are victimized by scammers and identity thieves vary every year. Each time scammers succeed in their attempts to take advantage of the credit system their criminal actions continue and even develop. One of the best things you should learn to do when you have started building a credit is credit monitoring.
Credit reports contain information about your credit history. Your credit history includes all the financial and credit transactions you have made in the past years. The three credit reporting agencies are required by law to provide consumers with their credit reports once each year, if the consumer asks for it. This means that every twelve months, you are given the free chance to review your credit report.
When you receive your credit report regularly, and you have already learned how to read what this document contains, you can very well do credit monitoring all by yourself. Checking your own credit activity and credit history makes it easier for you to detect suspicious activity. Since each of your financial transactions using your credit accounts get recorded on your credit history and printed on your credit report, you can determine which among them are genuine or authorized.
Of course, it follows that whenever you purchase something using your credit card, as an example, you remember the details. Credit monitoring is even more effective in identifying scams if you check your credit reports from time to time. This implies that you don t have to wait a year to verify whether you are free from scams or not. You can certainly monitor your credit by availing credit report services from the internet.
But if you lack the time to monitor your own credit, such service is available from the government. The monitoring agency, upon your request, will take one credit report from the three credit reporting agencies and monitor the changes in your credit history. The agency will notify you, in case any suspicious items are found. On the other hand, there are also private companies that provide similar services to whoever subscribes. You can also ask for your credit history from them when the need arises and they will notify you as well when they have come up with their own findings.
Though credit monitoring is done primarily to prevent or put a stop to credit fraud, scams and identity stealing, you are guaranteed to be notified of the smallest errors found on your credit report. Some companies provide for additional services when you subscribe to credit monitoring. Such include monthly score trending and credit score elucidations. If you really want to make sure that no errors are left unnoticed, you can look for credit monitoring services that are applied daily.
One thing you should however remember before you sign up to any credit monitoring service you find, is security. Most companies would have to ask for your name, address and social security number to gain access to your credit report. Since such information should remain private, make sure that you are only working with reputable agencies for your own safety. Other than that, make sure also that the services you avail are within your budget. Do consider that credit monitoring could be costly.
Author Resource:
This article has been provided by http://www.free-credit-reports.com , where you can compare credit report and identity theft protection services with this comprehensive chart of all credit report and credit score service providers.
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