A great deal
I've used a few different credit monitoring services, but the best so far has to be IdentityGuard. It offers a monthly report from each bureau, a credit score from each bureau, and offers an analyzer to test different scenarios. For example, if you want to know whether your score will go up or down after canceling a certain credit card, it can tell you. If you want to know what your score might be in one year if you make every payment on time, it can let you know that, too. I find that it is a great deal.
-- Shawn
Glad to have it
I have Pre-paid Legal to monitor my credit for ID theft ... glad to have it!
-- Koren
Alerts proved to be helpful
I recently got free credit monitoring through Equifax because the financial institution that manages my company's 401(k) plan lost a laptop with my (and other employees') personal information.
The service was helpful to me when my husband accidentally paid our home equity payment to our mortgage account and our mortgage account to our home equity payment. We knew about the mistake very quickly. The service is also helpful as it provides the forms and addresses needed to write these letters. It also helped me manage credit accounts that were active but unused. I closed the ones I didn't want open. The service sends alerts when someone checks my credit report. It's nice to know when people are poking around in my information.
Finally, in July, I was the victim of identity theft. Almost $10,000 in fraudulent charges were made on my credit card. We believe the number was hacked off the Internet, as neither of us lost our cards and the charges were made in Florida, though we live in Colorado. While the issue has been resolved, and even though this service itself didn't help me with that issue, it's nice to know I will get an alert if a new and unauthorized account were to be opened.
I am not sure I would pay for the service myself, but I might if the rate was reasonable. We monitor our own accounts pretty thoroughly, which is how we detected the credit card fraud when it happened.
I used to think all this identity theft hoopla was borderline paranoia and media hype, but once it has happened to you, you get more concerned about securing your identity and your credit!
-- Amanda
Helped track credit score changes
The credit monitoring service I use through Equifax has been a good experience for me. I was in the midst of some major changes in my life: the death of a spouse and the end of some bumpy credit mistakes made five to seven years ago (due to medical bills). Additionally, my wallet was stolen last Christmas season. By subscribing to this service I have been allowed to watch when a major credit reporting service sees my credit use and how it has affected my score.
-- Jerry
No uniformity in credit report information
I have monitored all three credit reports and all three bureaus report information differently. I spent $200 in the past three weeks on credit monitoring and found it to be dissatisfying. I don't know who to believe. I am trying to fix my credit, but I am not getting the same results displayed by all three. I am very disappointed with all three credit-reporting agencies.
-- Peggy
Big transaction failed to show up
Not worth it. I paid $130 to Equifax last year for their 3-in-1 monitoring-alert service. This service was supposed to monitor my credit report activity at all three of the major credit bureaus. I opened two credit cards and did a huge balance transfer and was not even notified!
A big waste of my money in my opinion. I think this type of service is definitely worthwhile, but only if it actually works.
-- Lois
Alerts limited to credit activity, not all fraud
It wasn't worth it. I thought I could use the service to know exactly when someone was using my identity. Recently however, I learned that someone used my name during an arrest in a state where I used to live. My extended family received a notice for me at their address from a bail bond agency debt collector and told me immediately.
When I spoke to this debt collector, they wouldn't give me any information because they said they had sent me many notices to that address as well as "my other address" in the state and it was the final notice.
Turns out, I could be driving down to visit my family one day and could be arrested for this, had I never known about it. If credit monitoring can't prevent such a horrendous thing from happening to me, then why do I need it? This fraudulent person took out $25,000 bail money in my name! This was never reported on my credit report, not even as an inquiry. |
