Three Advantages to Credit Report Monitoring
If you are interested in tracking what is happening with your credit, credit report monitoring may be the answer. Credit report monitoring enables you to see any changes that happen to your credit report or your credit score. This will provde the financial information you need to take control of your finances and it could also help you to better protect your identity. There are several benefits of monitoring your credit report and score such as the following .
Credit Report Monitoring Boosts Understanding of Your Financial Picture
Whenever you take on any kind of debt, the debt appears on your credit report. Your credit report, consequently, gives you a snapshot summary of all the debts you have. This includes your mortgage balance as well as the balances on any credit cards and other loans you have in your name. You’ll also discover much credit you have available on your open credit cards. Viewing all of this information at the same time lets you know what you owe and helps give you a picture of your financial obligations.
Credit Report Monitoring Can Help you Catch Errors
Credit card companies and banks aren’t perfect and in some cases they make mistakes. Sometimes, they may report that a payment was made late when it wasn’t or they may supply an incorrect loan balance. In some cases, creditors will even mistake you for someone else and will put information on your credit report that doesn’t pertain to you. Credit monitoring enables you to see these errors so you can then contact the credit reporting agencies and correct them.
Credit Report Monitoring Will Help Alert You to ID Theft
Identity theft is a huge financial problem if it happens to you as your credit can be severely damaged even though you didn't do anything wrong. If someone else takes your identity, that person can use your personal information to take on loans and get credit or to consume services. The person who stole your identity will, of course, not pay for any of the bills they've accrued in your name. Nonpayment, maxed out credit cards and even judgments against you can all show up on your credit report and can damage your credit score and your credit worthiness. You’ll be left working to correct the incorrect information and to contact financial institutions to let them know you weren’t responsible for the charges and debts. While you can fix your credit score and get the incorrect information removed, this is often a very long-drawn-out process and the longer the thief has your identity the more you may need to undo. When you monitor your credit report, hopefully you’ll be able to spot the identity theft faster and you can put an end to the misuse of your information before your credit is totally damaged and there’s a lot to undo.
If you are interested in credit report monitoring, you can use a service such as IDENTITY GUARD® to help you keep tabs on your credit.