Friday, November 9, 2007

Credit Report Monitoring

Identity theft is at an all time high as a result of the
digital age of paperless transactions and online databases.
Why would anyone want to steal someone's identity? Some
people think it is just for the purpose of starting fresh
or getting away from their previous life, but the vast
majority of identity thieves do it for money. If they have
your personal identity information they can also retrieve
your banking information, credit card numbers, and more.
Those who are using other identities are usually using many
identities for the purpose of stealing money from all of
them, perhaps by withdrawing funds from their bank or
setting up a credit card in their name. The scary thing
about identity theft is that the violators have little care
that they may be taking everything another individual owns
as well as destroying their credit for a number of years.
If a victim is unable to detect identity theft for over six
months, it can do severe financial damage. You can of
course investigate your own credit reports and accounts
regularly, or you can pay for a credit monitoring service
to investigate for you.

One of the greatest advantages to using a credit monitoring
program is the convenience. Instead of living life,
constantly paranoid of identity theft, credit monitors can
do the worrying for you. Odds are, a monitoring program
will also investigate more thoroughly than the average
citizen. Monitoring services commonly monitor new account
activity, address changes, collection accounts, changes to
account information, credit limit increases, credit
inquiries, changes in public records, changes in current
accounts, and recently closed or flagged accounts. Yes, all
of these things can be equally investigated by an eager
individual, but routinely checking all of these cues for
identity theft can be tedious and unpleasant. Regardless,
it is important to check all or more of these areas to keep
a close watch on the possibility of identity theft. Early
detection is the key to monitoring your credit before the
financial loss has become too great, and with an online
identity theft monitoring service, you can just go on
living life without the burden of becoming a part time
investigator.

When considering a monitoring service, you should first
consider where that provider receives information. It is
most desirable for an identity theft service to obtain
information from the three major credit agencies. How often
the service monitors your information is also relevant. The
frequency of your credit monitoring will increase your
chances of early detection. Various services and programs
also vary in how often they release reports and give
updates, and some provide actual identity theft insurance
in the event that they make a mistake and overlook a thief.

There are a host of things to take into account when
deciding how to keep a close eye on your credit
information. Identity theft is a very real problem that no
one believes will really happen, but the reality is that it
happens every day. If you choose not to use an online
identity theft service or other credit monitoring program
get organized so that you can closely monitor the
activities associated with your identity. It will save you
so many problems in the future.


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for credit reports,credit scores and credit report
monitoring.Learn what most don't know.

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