Other financial experts recommend that you check your credit report twice a year, but ideally you should do it once every quarter. Especially if you’re actively using credit and if anyone other than you has access to your social security number, then the bottom line is you really need to be monitoring your credit as often as once each quarter.

Credit reports are updated once a quarter by the credit bureaus but updates can be recorded anytime especially if there’s a lot of  activity, like credit inquiries, new accounts, or negative entries.

Employing credit monitoring services in general means that you have your credit report monitored for you on a regular basis, and you get alerted via email, phone or letter about any changes to your credit history.

Credit Monitoring: The good and the bad

There are those who do not consider these services worthwhile and those who feel it is essential to your overall credit health. Yes you can monitor your own credit with some effort, and depending on how often you plan on doing it, you’ll need to request a copy of your credit report from each of the credit bureaus individually and pay each for the report.

Doing it yourself is less convenient and you get no alerts. For around $10 a month most credit monitoring services will include a number of benefits to include a service warranty and resolution assistance should anything happen. You won’t get any of these benefits by monitoring your own credit files.

If you can do without the additional benefits then for around $10 to $15 dollars you can get each of your reports each quarter and review your accounts. So it really is a matter of do you want to do the foot work yourself?

There are more than 1,000 local and regional credit bureaus around the country (US), the three major ones are Experian, Equifax and TransUnion. All of which collect and record information reported to them by your creditors, banks, credit card companies, private lending institutions etc.

Yes they sell your information to third parties and this is profitable for them, and those third parties may resell or share that information with other business partners who then pre-approve you for dozens of credit offers each year and add you to their mailing/distribution lists to send you stuff you don’t really need.

Why this puts your identity at risk?

The trading and exchanging of personal consumer information is risky business, for the consumer that is. Those who obtain your information from the credit bureaus could mishandle your information and expose you to a hacker. Unfortunately this is simply the cost of doing business.

Credit bureaus are private companies with a business that’s regulated because it involves a certain degree of risk for the information owner. Those regulations do not yet do enough to protect consumers however. Hey cigarettes and alcohol are dangerous also, but they’re not going to stop selling them are they? As long as they’re regulated and the producers pay federal taxes, all is well.

Do you have any say in this?

Luckily yes. You can request a credit freeze. Sometimes known as security freeze, prevents a credit reporting bureau from releasing your credit report and stop inquiries and subscriptions on your account without your consent. You can request a credit freeze from each of the credit bureaus, and typically you’ll be provided with a personal identification number and/or password if you ever want to remove it.

The most immediate advantage of placing a freeze on your credit report is to stop releasing your information to those who intend to market to you. But you must also know that by placing a credit freeze on your file you’ll stop your own self from being able to get credit, apply for a mortgage or a car loan. If you can live without those things and simply want to take control of your identity now, then a credit freeze will work great.

This mostly applies to the 3 major credit bureaus, other companies that gather information about you must be contacted individually and there could be hundreds of them. They can still trade your information and continue to send you junk mail and credit offers if they already have you on file. The freeze only stops the bureaus from further releasing information about you.

One way to address your information already being available is to either use credit monitoring or identity theft services. Although you can do much of what these services yourself, it will prove time consuming and burdensome to tackle this task on your own. Definitely something to consider.

The number of threats consumers face today are astounding, what’s worse, once the scam takes place, the victim may not notice the theft until months later. So what can you do to ensure your personal information stays safe?

One of the first steps to get started is to monitor your credit report. Your personal credit files are kept by the 3 major credit bureaus in the US. The information they record include:

• The companies that granted you credit
• Third parties that have made credit inquiries about you
• Third parties that have reviewed your credit
• Payment and timeliness information (payment history)
• Past addresses for the last 10 years.
• Jobs you’ve held in the last 10 years

Guidelines for monitoring your credit:

Keeping track of your credit report and what appears on it regularly, will prove a huge benefit and a great way to stay ahead of identity thieves. Here are some guidelines to be most effective.

1. Check all 3 of your credit reports: You’ll find that there are significant gaps and differences in how your credit is seen by each of the major bureaus. A certain account might show in one but not the other, so it’s essential you compare information across all three reports.
2. Monitor your credit reports quarterly: You can check your credit free once a year, and although that’s better than nothing, it isn’t frequent enough to detect fraud and stop the damage. Checking your report once every quarter is the most ideal way to keep on top of what’s going on with your personal credit file and catch identity thieves and stop credit fraud before it becomes a bigger problem.
3. Look for suspicious activity: When reviewing your credit report you’ll notice and recognize accounts that are familiar to you, like your Visa card from Chase, or that car loan you’re still paying off. Your job is to take a close look at every single account reported on all 3 of your credit reports and find anything that looks suspicious or inconsistent when compared to your other reports. Look at inquiries made and find out who they are and why they’re inquiring about your when you have not recently applied for credit.

Keeping on top of it proactively and consistently is the most effective way to keep safe from credit fraud and other identity theft threats. However, it may seem a little inconvenient and time consuming, if this is you, consider credit monitoring services or full blown Identity Theft Protection services.

These automated systems will alert you automatically when changes to any of your credit reports occur, and depending on which service you sign up for, the coverage can be very sophisticated and certainly takes the burden of your hands.

Credit card fraud can be prevented with the help of credit monitoring services, but for those who are not yet signed to these services, you have rights under the law if you become a victim or credit fraud.

1. First thing you must do is get a police report filled out. Many states won’t have a specific law for this, but you must be persistent, as this report will entitle you to the following:

• A 7 year fraud alert
• A credit freeze
• Have inaccurate or fraudulent data blocked from your credit reports
• Get copies of all transactions records on fraudulent accounts

2. You have the right to have those fraudulent accounts removed from your credit report once you have gathered the necessary evidence about the fraud, including any collections notices or inquiries.

How to organize your credit fraud case:

• Keep a detailed log of your time and efforts, including all phone calls you receive or make, including names of people you talk to, their titles, phone numbers, company name and notes about the conversation.
• Mail all correspondence certified with a return receipt requested to confirm it has been delivered. Keep the postcards you receive back as evidence.
• Get confirmation of all conversations and agreements in writing, people leave companies all the time and that person may not be around to see that agreement through.
• Maintain an expense log, where you record the time and money you’re investing into resolving your credit fraud case.

3. Work with the right people. You’ll waste a lot of time if you hire or talk to the wrong people about your case. Insist on speaking with someone on the fraud or investigative side of a company or government agency. Customer service is never the right place to start discussing your credit fraud problem.

If your case is beyond credit card fraud and it involves other aspects of your identity, check the resources listed on the Identity Theft Victims page.

Once your case is resolved and your credit report is back to a healthy status, consider a solid identity theft or credit monitoring service that can provide advanced credit fraud alerts to help you act quickly.

The scanning technology employed by some of these providers is outstanding, being able to detect subscriber information on illegal information trading sites is one of the best benefits of the service.

Taking a proactive and consistent approach to protecting your credit means understanding and accepting the responsibility for it. Making payments on time and never cutting corners or compromising when it comes to the security of your credit cards, bank accounts, and every other aspect of your personal identity.

These points may sound obvious but are often ignored by consumers, and it is when we let our guard down that we create chances for identity thieves to take advantage of our smallest mistakes to earn themselves a big payday. Protecting your credit involves a significant time investment from you, but is is part of the responsibility of being issued credit.

Minimizing the Risks of Fraud

Credit card fraud is one of the most common and most lucrative crime trends. It’s also one of the easiest to do and get away with, and the hardest to detect without the proper credit monitoring in place. Identity thieves are opportunistic and use phishing, skimming, and dumpster diving as methods of digging for key pieces of information such as your social security number, credit card numbers, csv verification numbers and anything they can use to either abuse your existing credit accounts or open new ones under your name.

Victims of credit fraud are often left with the daunting task of restoring their credit and their good names at a significant cost of both time and money. Here’s how you outsmart the scammers and minimize your risks for credit fraud.

1. Pay close attention to your billing cycles – contact your credit card company or bank if your statements do not arrive when they should.
2. Watch out for mail fraud – redirecting mail is very easy to do, know when your statements should arrive and do your best to secure your mail box with a lock. Never leave mail unattended and use a cross-cut shredder to destroy junk mail that contains your personal information.
3. Password protect everything – take advantage of additional security features offered by your credit provider or bank, such as password protection. Many people often see these extra steps as a burden rather than a benefit and this is letting your guard down.
4. Protect your personal information – you need to be cautious about who you give your information to, always know who you’re dealing with. Phone, email and snail mail phishing scams are still around because they still work, millions of people in the US fall victim to these each year.
5. Leave your SSN card at home – it’s a common habit to carry everything you may one day need with you in your wallet, it’s also a big mistake and an easy way to lose a lot of critical personal information at once. Your SSN is one of the most valuable pieces of information an identity thief can get their hands on, it means an easy pay day.
6. Shop securely online – when shopping online make sure you’re only doing it on secured sites. Make sure the address starts with https:// and look for the lock symbol somewhere in the footer of your browser, or the SSL (secure socket layer) text somewhere on the page.
7. Consider credit monitoring and/or identity theft protection – protecting against credit fraud and identity theft isn’t a fun job at all. The most convenient and practical way to protect your credit is to automate the process with these services. It’s instant peace of mind.

The FTC reports that it can take up to 6 months and in some cases up to 12 months for a victim of identity theft to take notice that their credit card information has been used by someone else. The harshest of all notices is being contacted by a bill collector about unpaid charges made by someone else.

Credit monitoring services are designed to alert the credit owner on a daily or weekly basis when credit changes occur in your credit reports. Be it a new credit account, mortgage or any information considered critical, it’s nice to have that heads up that something important is taking place and you should take a look.

Credit monitoring won’t prevent someone from using your social security number or medical benefits in any other ways. This type of service can work well for someone who is just getting started with building their credit or rebuilding their credit. If you never provide your social security number to anyone, chances are this service will work just fine for you.

Your reports should provide detailed information from all three credit bureaus, having a 3 in 1 credit report is best, because it provides the highest level of detail about your credit history.

You should clearly see details about your monthly payments, credit lines opened or closed, active loans, paid off accounts etc. All this information including your current address and past names used, are considered your credit history. When you activate your credit monitoring service whenever this information changes from either bureau you are notified.

What are the best services? Many of the identity theft protection companies like Trusted ID and LifeLock offer credit monitoring as part of their overall service. However IdentityLookout.com by Experian and FreeCreditReport.com are two of the most popular and widely used services with a long history of successful credit fraud prevention for their clients.

In order to get started you will need to visit either one of the providers above, where you’ll learn more details about their programs, then enter their secure portal where you’ll provide personal information that will allow them to begin gathering information about you. This process may take a bit long but it’s absolutely necessary in order to get started correctly.

The black market is a busy place where the data that’s acquired by hackers via security breaches is traded daily. Kapersky Labs reports that the credit card numbers traded at these sites are sold at very attractive prices. Credit cards are priced by origin, for example stolen credit cards from Germany would sell for $6, while US credit cards for around $2.

There are only a handful of these sites around and they’re obviously not easily found, it’s a very tight circle, these sites aren’t at all marketed, those who know how to find them are repeat customers. They even have customer support in both English and German.

How does your stolen credit card number end up at these sites? Well it all happens online, for the consumer it may start with viruses and spyware that end up on a user’s PC. These infections are designed to spy on the user’s activities while online, they capture user name and password information for credit card and banking sites.

Security Breaches occur when hackers successfully penetrate security layers from companies that have large databases of consumers information that store information such as social security information and credit card numbers. These breaches occur hundreds of times a year exposing critical information and costing consumers and companies billions of dollars every year.

If you suspect your information has been exposed by a breach, or a virus or spyware on your system, report stolen credit cards and keep a close eye on your balances, and get your fraud alerts activated as soon as possible. A stolen credit card is not always easily recognized, people who actually use your credit card number may be cautious about how they spend your money, so studying your statements carefully is absolutely necessary.

If you want to properly prevent identity theft and the consequences of it, credit monitoring is a good way to get started, this protects your credit cards, debit and share check, and banking accounts from fraud.

Other more advanced identity theft systems like Trusted ID and LifeLock offer a more broad range of features to monitor different aspects of your identity. Identity theft is complicated and its prevention even more involved, so the services of such companies are the best way to automate the process.

Some of these practices include:

• never giving out credit card information over the phone
• never responding to email or phone phishing scams
• never lending your credit card to anyone
• shopping online with secure sites only
• always keep track of where your cards are
• only carry the card that you need in your wallet and put away the ones you hardly ever use
• always submit credit card information with caution
• know who you’re dealing with at all times

Credit card protection can also be automated through special services that make it easier to set up and receive credit card fraud alert notices and even insure the card holder against heavy losses sometimes incurred due to misuse and identity theft.

The biggest danger to consumers today is not their own carelessness, it’s the data loss that occurs during security breaches. Companies that handled credit card information today have a huge problem securing consumer information. The high cost of technology and overhead of maintaining this information makes it challenging and the attempts from hackers to penetrate these systems to obtain this information is a constant threat.

Credit card protection services or credit monitoring services provide a good level of security for ensuring the card owner does not become a victim of identity theft. Credit information is all too easily available from too many sources and in many cases credit card numbers along with social security numbers are made available on black market sites where this information can be traded for money.

Credit fraud will always be a popular trend because it is always lucrative and easy to get away with. To get the credit card protection you need now and stay in charge of your credit, consider the services of identitylookout.com, also receive a 30-day trial of their identity theft protection service.

You can get your credit score when you request your free credit report, typically it costs a small fee to see your credit score, but it’s an essential part of your credit and worth viewing. If your score is only moderate or borderline good, your 3 in 1 free credit report should provide in great detail what accounts or entries are costing you those valuable points on your credit score.

The basic formula for your overall rating is: past credit + present credit = future credit. Your score is calculated based on the information in your credit report, these are some of the factors that play a role in determining your magic number:

• Your Payment history
• How much of your credit currently being used.
• Overall amount of credit available.
• Total Length of credit history
• Recent request for credit

The last factor used in determining your credit score is comparing the number produced by these factors to those of other consumers with similar credit profiles. Depending on the amount of credit used vs available credit, the score may put more emphasis on those two factors than anything else.

Why is your credit score so elusive?
There are dozens of credit valuing methods, each of the credit bureaus uses their own, and different methods are used for different types of credit. Your credit score is not carved in stone, it is a number that can fluctuate positively as well, with changes to your credit report. You can increase the frequency of your positive entries by staying on top of your credit.

To begin, request a copy of your free credit report and begin analyzing your credit history now, look for and dispute any inaccuracies and pay close attention to your credit score comparing it across the board against all three bureaus.

Practicing this consistently will guarantee you’ll always have your credit available to you when you need it. You can also take advantage of the free credit monitoring trial offers that all the credit bureaus are extending to those who get their credit report directly from them.

Your 3 in 1 credit report is easily downloaded after you fill out the required information from either one of the credit reporting bureaus, this will typically take from 5 to 10 minutes and your report is made available instantly.

What’s in a 3 in 1 credit report?
A 3 in 1 credit report includes all three of the major credit reporting bureaus (Experian, Equifax and Transunion). This type of report will show you activities as seen by these agencies and gives the credit owner a detailed topside view of their credit activities and makes it easier to detect discrepancies and errors. You will see a number of differences with the way your credit history is reported by all three credit bureaus. Even your credit score will be different.

Will my free credit report include my credit score?
In most cases no, your credit score can be provided to you with your credit report but typically it involves a fee. Depending on the bureau or the promotion running at the time you may be get your score for $5 to $9 dollars in some cases. Even the government sponsored annual credit report, does not include your score.

Can I get a free credit report if I’m an Identity Theft Victim?
Yes, all identity theft victims are entitled to their free credit report by filling out the identity theft affidavit and a police report to all three credit reporting bureaus and by law you’re entitled to it.

What should I do if my credit shows errors?
First you need to make sure the errors are not showing on all 3 reports, if they do, these may be more consistent than erroneous, in which case unfortunately, you must do some of the foot work and contact the creditor that issued the debt or reported the entry and make sure that your account with them is in good standing or resolved. Then provide solid proof to the reporting bureaus about your new account status.

How do I get my report?
To get a free credit report sent directly to you or downloaded instantly check out this new offer that includes free identity theft protection for 30 days. Enjoy the benefits of proper credit monitoring and identity theft when you get your free credit report from identitylookout.com today.