Credit report monitoring

Credit report monitoring is the monitoring of one's credit history in order to detect any suspicious activity or changes. Companies offer such service on a subscription basis, typically granting regular access to one's credit history, alerts of critical changes to one's credit history, and additional services. Credit monitoring can help detect credit related fraud and identity theft.

In the United States, whenever obtaining one's credit history, or credit monitoring, such services are typically available either as single-bureau service (with data access to only one of the 3 national credit reporting bureaus), or three-bureau service (with access to data to all three national credit reporting bureaus). It is often advisable to see data with all three bureaus (Equifax, Experian and TransUnion) to detect identity theft.

Companies providing credit monitoring will typically alert the consumer to important activity such as credit inquiries, public records, delinquencies, negative information, employment changes, new accounts and other changes to one's credit history. Most people get little benefit from paying for regular credit reporting^{[citation needed]} such as that available from FreeCreditReport.Com.^[1]

Notes

1. ^ "A Free Credit Score Followed by a Monthly Bill" article by Ron Lieber in The New York Times November 2, 2009