Is it Worth it to Get a Credit Monitoring Service?

Credit monitoring is the supervision of your credit on a regular basis, with the intent of preventing unauthorized activities and helping to establish good credit. Consumers can only receive one credit report from each of the three major credit reporting agencies per year. Those credit reports can only be viewed for a limited time period. Credit monitoring allows consumers continuous access to their credit history so that they can ensure accuracy at all times and work to improve their credit over time.

Your credit history affects so much more than just whether or not you can get a new credit card. It can affect the kind of car you can buy, the house that you live in, and even whether or not a particular employer will hire you. Your credit history will also determine whether or not you can get loans and how much interest you will end up paying on those loans.

When potential lenders look at your credit report, they see it as a clear indication of your creditworthiness. In other words, if your credit report shows that you have a series of late payments and accounts that are in default, lenders are going to judge the likelihood of you repaying them in a timely manner based on your history.

All of this should establish how important it is to ensure that your credit history is a fair reflection of your credit worthiness. Unfortunately, even if you pay all of your bills on time and in full, your credit history can still be jeopardized. Luckily, credit monitoring can help you to protect yourself and your good credit name in the following ways:

Identity Theft Protection

Credit monitoring helps you protect your personal information and your credit history and one of the main components is Identity theft protection. Identity theft is on the rise and credit monitoring can be a great way to defend yourself against it. Credit monitoring ensures that you have quick access to your credit report. You can review your credit report at any time to check for unauthorized activity. Some credit monitoring services will even alert you about suspicious activity that shows up on your credit report.

Eliminating Errors

Mistakes happen, even on your credit report. Errors or wrong information on your credit report can hurt your chances to get a loan. Even if you’ve never had a late payment, one mistakenly reported late payment can negatively impact your credit score. Credit monitoring can help you make sure that all of the information on your credit report is correct and complete at all times.

Easy Dispute Filing

If an error does show up on your credit report, credit monitoring makes the dispute process easier. You can easily file a dispute on a piece of information and receive a verdict from the credit agency. Credit monitoring allows you to check your credit report regularly through the dispute process. If the dispute goes in your favor, you can make sure that the error is removed from your report.

Tracking Your Credit

If your credit score is not what you want it to be, credit monitoring is a great way to track your progress towards a higher credit score. Many consumers don’t fully understand how credit works and why they receive the scores that they do. Credit monitoring can help you to understand your credit history. Over time, you will learn how to improve your credit and how to keep your creditworthiness at the highest level. This can help you to get the loans that you need at lower rates, resulting in serious savings.