There are many features of credit monitoring that are great whether you are trying to repair your credit or already have outstanding credit. Each of these features can benefit you in a different way. For those with good credit, a monitoring service will help you avoid Identity Theft and allow you to monitor changes in your credit score. For those struggling to build credit or repair bad credit, you can determine the negative items affecting your credit record and monitor your credit score for changes as you make efforts to repair your credit.
For those of you with bad credit, you most likely will want to monitor your FICO score as you attempt to fix your credit. The FICO score is the score most widely used by lenders when ascertaining whether to approve you for a credit card or loan. This is important to note when shopping for a credit monitoring service as many products will give you their own credit score and not a FICO score.
When creditors report to the credit agencies, they are not obligated to report to all 3 of the national credit reporting agencies. For this reason, it would be a good idea to get a copy of your credit report from each credit reporting agency. This will allow you to get an insight on which of your creditors are reporting to which credit reporting agencies. Also, you may find false information that is adversely affecting your credit, but at only one credit bureau. There are many credit monitoring packages available and most will offer a combined 3 bureau credit report. This can be a great convenience since the format of credit reports from each agency is different. The combined 3 bureau credit report will be in the same format and will make it easier to spot the differences in the different bureaus credit report.
Once you have great credit you will most likely want to do everything you can to keep it that way. For this reason, monitoring your credit reports and scores is vital in maintaining that great credit you worked so hard for. All of the credit monitoring services that I have reviewed or personally used have email alerts that will let you know about major changes in your credit report or changes in your credit score.
Major changes in your credit report of score could be an indication of Identity Theft and so this is one of the best ways to alert you of this possibility. In addition to alerts, most 3 bureau credit monitoring services offer Identity Theft insurance that typically will reimburse you between $20,000 and $25,000 in damages.
Credit monitoring services offer you the ability to see all credit reports from all 3 credit bureaus, check and monitor your FICO credit scores and setup email alerts to alert you of major changes happening to your credit report or score. With credit monitoring you can also get Identity Theft insurance in the event you are the victim of stolen identity.
