The Top 7 Best Credit Monitoring Sites: Alert!
Your credit score means a lot to your financial standing. You need to raise your score as high as possible and keep it there. You can do this by always paying your bills on time and making the appropriate payment. It happens in 2020 though that people try to steal identities. Sometimes, people key in the wrong information, and someone else’s information ends up on your credit report. Other times, people do it on purpose. Someone once co-opted the address of my lake house and it took months to get their information removed from my credit history.
This problem requires vigilance.
You need to check your credit report online at least every six months to ensure there is no wrong information on your report. Okay. Maybe that sounds like a time suck. It only takes about an hour though. Still, you may want an easier way since there are three credit bureaus and you need to check each one. If you want to do it yourself, you can check your credit three times per year by using a different credit bureau each time.
US law provides you legal access to your credit report once per year per bureau. You can request one from one agency, then wait four months and request another from a different agency, then repeat the process with the third agency. Otherwise, you could contract with a credit monitoring service to protect identity online.
Enter the Wonderful World of Credit Monitoring
A credit monitoring service checks the customer’s credit history automatically on a set schedule to catch any suspicious activity. The service sends a monthly or quarterly report on activity. The reports provide information on credit inquiries, new and existing accounts, and related items. When something suspicious occurs, the monitoring service alerts the consumer immediately. Suspicious activity might include an attempt to change an address or a new credit line or charges made from an unusual location, such as the Caribbean islands for a US resident. The alerts and reports let the individual determine the veracity of the information.
Credit monitoring services also help them keep abreast of their credit score. This lets them know when it takes a dip or raises. That provides necessary information before they attempt to apply for a loan or mortgage.
So, the process of credit monitoring curtails credit fraud, identity theft, and contributes to effective credit score management. It also provides the consumer with important illustrative information on other items such as their credit history, inquires on their account, account delinquencies, related public records, and other information.
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Seven Best Credit Monitoring Sites
You will find numerous credit monitoring sites on the Internet. As a savvy consumer, you need to study these sites and know which offers a good deal and the right mix of identity protection, privacy vigilance, and credit monitoring.
CreditKarma
Let’s start with the service every person can afford. Credit Karma charges nothing for its credit monitoring service. You pay for no trial subscription nor any monthly maintenance fee. The free option lets you monitor TransUnion and Equifax credit report scoring. Experian is not included and you must monitor it on your own or using a different service. Each time you log in, this credit monitoring site updates your credit score. On a weekly basis, the credit report information gets updated. It also sends an alert when fraudulent activity is suspected.
Privacy Guard
With Privacy Guard, you can try the service for a 14-day trial for $1. If you do not cancel, you will be charged $9.99. It monitors your credit reports across all three credit bureaus, reports on your credit score, and provides up to $1 million in ID theft insurance. You can get the reports by phone, email, or text. The company’s basic ID Protection reports all signs of identity theft. The service monitors both the public and Dark Web plus public records. You can upgrade to the Credit Protection plan which costs $19.99 per month. In addition to the basic features, it provides daily credit monitoring with a credit score simulator so you can test out potential financial scenarios to determine what would improve your credit score. You can also upgrade to the Total Protection plan for $24.99 per month to leverage all of the features of the ID protection plan plus credit protection.
FICO
FICO offers a credit monitoring site, the Ultimate 3B. It provides the consumer with instant access to their information at all three credit bureaus. If you need to consistently access your credit for a mortgage, auto loans, and credit cards, this service works the best.
Each of those three undertakings uses a different version of your credit score and this service provides them to you plus the other version - 28 in all. You get quarterly reports and score updates plus alerts to any change in your credit information. You will know if someone opened an account if a financial institution made an inquiry, any additional public records, or addresses using your information, plus any newly listed account sent to collections and account balance updates. Some of the credit bureaus submit credit limit changes plus alterations or variations in the individual’s name. You can subscribe to this credit monitoring site for $29.95 per month or the slightly discounted annual fee of $329.
IdentityForce
Identity Force offers no trial plan. You can choose from two credit and identity theft monitoring products. The credit monitoring site’s UltraSecure plan only monitors identity theft and provides $1 million in identity theft insurance.
It costs $12.99 per month or $129.90 per year. The service’s UltraSecure+Credit plan monitors credit score/report information and credit for $19.99 per month. In addition to the basic plan, it monitors the three credit bureaus information, provides credit reports, credit scores, plus a credit simulator.
Identity Guard
Identity Guard is the old guard of the credit and identity monitoring services. In business for more than 20 years, it has served more than 47 million customers during that time. This credit monitoring site monitors all three of the main credit bureaus. It offers three plans - Value, Total, and Premier.
You can monitor your whole family’s credit and identities using this service. This provides one of the most comprehensive packages available which includes your monthly credit score, credit monitoring, account takeover alerts, alerts when the service notes your personal information appears on the Dark Web, plus a $1 million identity theft policy, an identity theft case manager, and a mobile app. Its individual plans range from $8.99 to $24.99 while its family plans range from $14.99 to $34.99.
IdentityWorks
Experian runs the credit monitoring site Identity Works that provides a 30 day trial offer. It monitors all three credit bureaus’ information on the individual including identity theft, credit scores, and credit reports.
It monitors for identity theft, uses of your personal information on the Dark Web, detects accounts opened using your Social Security Number or payday loans are extended using your information, account takeover, change of address submitted to the US Postal Service. It also notifies the consumer if a sex offender moves nearby. The individual plan costs $9.99 per month while the family plan protects one adult and up to 10 children for a monthly cost of $14.99. You can also obtain a plan that protects two adults and up to 10 children which costs $19.99.
TransUnion Credit Monitoring
You get monthly credit monitoring for its in-house credit score and report. If information changes, you get an instant alert. This costs $19.95 per month.
Tips for Choosing Credit Monitoring Sites
Not all credit monitoring sites work the same. Some claim to offer a free service, but they may harbor hidden fees or it may be a free trial offer that has cancellation requirements such as a cut-off date by which the consumer must cancel or get charged a monthly fee.
Before signing with a credit monitoring service, check its background. Both your local consumer protection agency and the State Attorney General office keep complaint records. See which, if any, have been filed against the service.
How Monitoring Can Help Your Credit Score
Let’s say you want to increase your credit score. You need to track the information on your report and check it frequently. The monitoring service helps you do that so you know when an activity occurs that would affect your credit score.
Some monitoring services for credit also help you repair your credit. Their initial report comes with a series of suggestions for improving the consumer’s credit. This may include information to check and dispute if incorrect. It will also include tips on behavior that will result in an improved credit score.
This may include examples from the consumer’s credit history that illustrate how different behavior would have resulted in an improved score.
What Does Identity Theft Insurance Cover?
You probably noticed that many of the best credit monitoring sites also include an insurance policy in the monthly protection coverage. That is because the insurance industry uses a complex method of determining what each type of policy covers. The general liability that appears on a homeowners’ insurance policy covers if an individual gets sued for libel or defamation. It does not cover your identity theft. You probably know from reading the information on your credit card agreements that you only incur a $50 charge for fraudulent charges. That only applies to credit card charges though. Unfortunately, a thief may use your identity in numerous other icky, illegal ways. You need to protect yourself. Some insurance companies offer an add-on to your home insurance policy, but not all do.
Premiums for a standalone policy can range from about $10 to $50 per month. The credit monitoring sites that include it in their monthly or annual fee provide a great deal, especially considering that most provide up to $1 million in coverage.
This may include examples from the consumer’s credit history that illustrate how different behavior would have resulted in an improved score.
Why Get Identity Theft Insurance?
Identity theft insurance protects your financial status. You might think that could not happen to you, but a 2016 Bureau of Justice Statistics survey revealed that about 10 percent of US individuals aged 16 years or older had been the victim of identity theft in 2016. Two main types of identity theft exist. In one, the criminal opens credit lines in your name, using your personal information. In another form, the criminal obtains your existing credit card number and other card information to make unauthorized charges. They can also illegally take out loans, misrepresent you on social media, rent a home, apartment, office, or storage space in your name or any number of other awful things. These items leave you open to significant liability.
The key reason to carry identity theft insurance is to obtain coverage for reimbursement for costs associated with identity theft. Most people think in terms of coverage to pay the fraudulent charges, but the insurance also covers the cost of the individual taking off of work to appear in court, the attorney costs for fighting the fraudulent charges, and the court costs. The coverage of the policy for fraudulent charges typically caps at between $10,000 to $15,000. Check the standard policy for this cap and for any deductible you would need to pay before signing the policy. Some insurance companies offer a range of coverage options, so you can choose your deductible and the fraudulent charges coverage amount.
According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the financial losses of 88 percent of identity theft victims amounted to less than $1. That other 12 percent is not so lucky. They incur damages of $50 or greater. Some incur losses much greater because of the damage caused if they do not regularly check their credit scores. You do incur greater losses if you do not report the theft quickly. That means if you do not monitor your credit, you can find yourself owing lots of money. In these cases, you can still dispute the credit line and/or charges, but it will often appear as a write off on your credit report. That reflects poorly on your credit even if it does not reflect it in your credit score.
What Can You Use Insurance For?
You may also need to sue the criminal in court. Your insurance for identity theft may cover your attorney fees and court cost. You would want to sue to clear your good name if the thief had created accounts using your name, personal information, and/or photos in their identity theft scam. You would also potentially sue them for misappropriation of name or likeness. While identity theft is a criminal charge, the misappropriation of name or likeness is a civil charge. You would need to go to court for both.
Suing the injuring party can recoup some of the money lost and can result in a court decision that forces the injuring party to admit to the wrongdoing publicly. This admission can help clear your name and restore your reputation.
Ultimately, identity theft results in reputation destruction. It means more than avoiding fraudulent charges on your credit cards.
Let’s Look at an Example
Let’s say you own a small business. This applies to many people. The majority of victims of identity theft are not celebrities or independently wealthy. Most of this crime’s victims are regular people who wake up one morning to find thousands of dollars of charges on their credit cards or conduct an Internet search to check their local SEO for their business only to discover fake Facebooks or Instagrams in their names using stolen photos from the business’ website or the owner’s personal social media account.
Imagine the damage caused to a small business owner in a small city. Perhaps the actual person serves on the board of philanthropy, volunteers in their church, and is involved with the Chamber of Commerce. The city’s residents see a faux account using his name and photos though. Perhaps it uses his business’ address and a similar phone number to seem legitimate. The faux account of the pillar of the community follows porn accounts or begins liking racist posts. This provides a need for the actual consumer to determine the injuring party legally and bring a lawsuit against them while bringing criminal charges for identity theft. The actual party could lose business and income due to the injuring party’s defamation of their character stemming from their identity theft.
Conclusion
That is why identity theft protection remains so important. The theft of a credit card number or the co-opting of a postal mail address leaves the door open to larger, more serious crimes. Taking the extra step to use a credit monitoring site to vigilantly watch your identity and credit lines for you provides an extra level of protection for you and your good name.
Once a person establishes charges or some other form of identity theft, they can wedge that door open. This makes it imperative to conduct regular checks on social media and the larger Internet. Credit monitoring sites conduct the legwork for you, even scouring the Dark Web for your information.
So, while credit monitoring might not sound like the most exciting thing you will buy this year, it tops the list on importance. Remaining informed of the status of your own identity, credit, and reputation helps you succeed in life.