Using credit report monitoring services to detect identity theft

Credit report monitoring is the process of monitoring your credit report as a way to find doubtful activities and changes in your credit report. Companies provide this service on a subscription basis. Credit monitoring can help you find fraud and identity theft kind of activities from your account.

It is advisable to get credit reports or credit monitoring services from all of three national credit reporting bureaus to detect criminal activities from your account. Credit monitoring provider companies inform you about important activities such as inquiries, public records, delinquencies, negative information, and employment changes, new accounts, address changes etc.

There may be many people who suggest you to check your credit reports once a year. But I will recommend frequent checking of your credit files to detect criminal activities from your account.

And incase you prefer to get your credit report only once a year, then you may be too late to get notice of the identity theft activities from your account. But with credit monitoring services, you will get alert on daily or weekly basis about the changes in your credit and that will surely help you to stop theft activities before they gets out of control.

According to Federal Trade Commission, approx 10 million people became victim of identity theft last year and each victim had to pay an average of $5,000. But two third of victims who were able to find the misuse of their personal information within five months, not had to pay out of pocket expenses. So this is what credit monitoring is. It cannot stop the credit fraud related activities from your account, but can cut down their effect.