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Every year, about 10 million Americans fall prey to identity thieves. Approximately $50 billion dollars are lost through this kind of insidious theft. There are 3 major credit bureaus that monitor and process all activities. Hiring a credit monitoring company can help keep you, your money and your life, safe. There are many companies that can check all 3 reports, from all 3 bureaus, to see if any unusual activity arises on your account. Examples of unusual activity would be a new application or account opening. However, this is not a perfect system. An account that has gone unused for several months and suddenly has activity on it may not show up as unusual. A monitoring company may not pick this up as suspicious but, it could be exactly this indicator that tells you there's criminal activity. If you wanted to do your own self monitoring or double check the credit monitoring company, you can order an annual report from an online site that amalgamates the 3 bureau reports. One report is free. If you want them with greater frequency you must pay extra. Now, if you do find activity that is unusual, notify the bureaus immediately. The bureaus work interchangeably and must, at this point, send you regular report at no charge. They must do this until the issues are resolved. You may also want to consider a freeze on all your cards as well. The unfortunate truth with thieves of this sort is that they are often more lucky than clever. A report in 2010 says that faulty codes and configuration mistakes on computers make it much easier to break into a data base. Most of the time, hacker just kept trying different passwords until they were let into the account. This seems obvious but, security personnel often didn't check log in volumes and credentials. If you suspect that a company you gave your information to, has had a data breach, you may want to ask if they will do a monitoring report for you. This will allow you to track any changes on your account (with them) and possibly find the source of a theft (if any). Something to keep in mind: each time you apply for a loan and get turned down it is recorded and affects your credit score. You can ask for a report, for a fee, from the bureaus. If you think there are inaccuracies then let them know. You can dispute it. This is your credit score and will affect some big decisions in your life. You'll want to take charge... So to speak.
Credit Report
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