Credit Monitoring

You can use a credit monitoring service to combat fraud, or you can monitor it yourself. Some people choose to do it themselves, but the reality is that an individual is not going to have the ability to be as thorough as a monitoring service when it comes to working with a credit report agency. The reason is pretty basic. You are allowed one free credit report every 12 months from each of the three major reporting agencies. A monitoring service constantly checks in on your credit to make sure your are not becoming a victim of fraud. Unless you want to pay to get credit reports every month, the services are more efficient. Even better are the identity protection packages which include credit monitoring but also protect a range of other personal information you do not want falling into the wrong hands. This includes your social security number, bank information, address and phone number if unlisted, etc. Monitoring your own credit without the assistance of a monitoring service simply does not offer the same level of protection. You may save a buck or two in the short term. But inefficient protection will cost you a lot more if you are the victim of identity theft and fraud.