Pros and Cons of DIY Credit Monitoring

​You’ve probably seen or heard more advertising about credit monitoring protection lately. And why do they bother with those infomercials full of scare tactics? After all, you can order free annual credit reports from each of the three major credit bureaus to check for fraudulent activity, and there are free apps that alert you to changes in your credit score. Some credit cards even bundle credit score alerts in with their services. So, why would you pay for credit monitoring when you can do it yourself? Good question, but the DIY approach has limits.

​Here’s what you can and can’t expect from free credit reports and credit scores.

• Free annual credit reports are useful, but an identity thief can do a lot of damage in the months between your checks.
• Each credit bureau works with different businesses, so if fraudulent activity appeared for a bureau other than the one you last checked, it might be even longer before you discover problems.
• Credit reports are difficult to decipher, so it’s easy to miss problems, and if you do report an issue or have a question, the credit bureau may not be all that helpful. They make money by collecting and selling data about you, not by making you happy.

​Credit monitoring is very different from just pulling your annual credit report. Credit monitoring, such as the coverage with IDX Identity, will notify you if a company checks your credit or opens an account, if a new address is added or changed (a common sign of account takeover fraud), or if an account goes delinquent long enough to be reported to a bureau. IDX Identity also includes CyberScan™ monitoring which searches the Internet and the Dark Web for your Social Security number, phone number, email, medical ID number, and driver license number, as well as credit card and bank account numbers.

​Apps and credit cards that track your credit (or FICO) score are also no substitute for credit monitoring. Credit scores change constantly based on a variety of factors, so if a thief opened a credit card in your name, the tiny effect of that credit check on your score might not be noticeable. By the time the thief ran up enough unpaid debt to really affect your score, the damage would be done.

​So, checking your annual credit reports or tracking your credit score is a start, but it’s far better to have a reputable credit monitoring service, and it’s ideal if that monitoring is part of a strong identity recovery protection plan. That way, whether your credit report shows something odd, or your credit monitoring sends you a suspicious alert, you will be able to call a recovery expert who will work with the banks, credit bureaus, and anyone else they need to until your identity is in the clear.