Is Credit Monitoring Important?

Keeping track of your financial well being is imperative to a person’s future, and can often mean the difference between having an easy life and having a difficult one. As your credit score is often an indication of what you are capable of handling in terms of finances, knowing exactly where you stand is more than a good idea, it is essential. Your score may not be perfect and it may not even be where you would like it to be, but with careful vigilance, it is possible to keep track of it and learn more about how to protect it. 

What is a Credit Score? 

Your credit score is calculated based on a number of things. Debt, active credit cards, loans, income and your history when paying bills are all taken into account and then the credit score is calculated. This score changes as your information changes - doing things like paying bills on time and paying off loans or debts will raise your scores while increasing debts, missing payments or having bills sent to collections will do the opposite. Having good credit is important for adults, and checking your credit report periodically is a good way to find discrepancies - which can be an indication of identity theft or fraud. Credit monitoring services, like the one offered at http://www.identityguard.com/, is an effective way to keep an eye on your credit.  

Who Will See My Credit Score? 

Ideally, only those that need to access your credit score will see it. This will include you, your bank, any company you approach for a loan or fill out an application for (credit cards, apartments, cars, etc) and potential employers. Being able to use old credit reports alongside the new can be used as a way to establish evidence of theft by alerting the proper parties to discrepancies, a sudden drop in numbers and even fraudulent applications or collections notices. In a perfect world, very few people will be able to access your credit scores, and they will only be used as guidelines and a tool to benefit you as you move through life. 

How Accurate is Credit Check Monitoring? 

Although these types of services are known for accuracy, they should never be used as a definitive method for proving identity theft or a data breach. Though they report current numbers, they act as more of a general indication of a credit score, and serve to keep users up to date in a way that comprehensive once a year reports cannot. The information obtained by these monitoring services is accurate, but they cannot be used to actually prevent identity theft; they are simply an enhanced method of detecting some types of fraudulent account or identity activity. These types of services give users a heads up when something looks amiss.

While it seems like a great deal of information to keep track of, credit monitoring services can help a great deal, and are available in many forms from simple to complex, depending on the type of services that you need. These reports are meant to help users get a better grasp on their financial standing in a way that would not be possible otherwise, giving them means to preemptively strike against account fraud or potential theft.