We get a few calls every month about people who just want to order credit reports and not enroll in a credit monitoring service. On our site we do not provide this services as you can go to Annual Credit Report.com to get a free copy of all three of your credit reports. This is a great way to take a look at your credit report for free, and you are eligible to check you reports once per year. Is there a down side? Not really, I would say the only major downside is you do not get your credit scores, but if you are just wanting your reports to verify all the information on them, this is by far the best way to go about it.
What about all those ads you see on TV for free credit reports? You should not be seeing them anymore, there was a lawsuit brought against companies providing free credit reports, because like most things in life they were not free. In order to get your free reports, they enrolled you into a credit monitoring service. And then you will billed every month until you canceled. This brought about a lot of unhappy customers as it rightfully should! Around a year ago there was a large crack down on any site promoting these free offers, and they are not allowed to promote free credit reports anymore. If you do happen to come across one of these offers, I would stay away from it!
You can also purchase a 3 in 1 credit report from most of the bureaus websites. Just make sure when you are there you are not enrolling in a monitoring program to get them! The going rate as of today is about $30.00 for all three reports and scores, so if they are trying to charge you between $10 and $20 you are most likely being enrolled in a monitoring program.
So you might be thinking this is an odd post on a company that is promoting credit monitoring, well yes it is! Our goal though is to have 100% customer satisfaction and if you are looking for just your personal credit report and do not want to have credit monitoring, we want to make sure you get exactly what you need, and most important to make sure you are not signing up for something that you do not need or want.
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I know we have said this over and over again, but it is so important to know what your credit score is, and if it is low, to raise it to a good or great level. Credit monitoring will help you see your progress as you being to raise your scores. Keeping tabs on your credit is vital, and many of us just do not have the time to keep monitoring our credit scores. This is where credit monitoring services shine!
We will provide you with all three of your credit scores.
We will track changes on all three of your credit reports, these can be changes you requested, or possible identity theft.
Having access to your three credit reports will allow you to find errors on your reports.
It can help you save money and time. By knowing what your credit scores are you will know exactly where you stand in the eyes of lenders. This will enable you to get the best deal possible, or decide to hold off until your credit score raises to the next bracket, which will save you money on anything you finance. And by being enrolled in our credit monitoring service you will constantly be updated on your credit score, that way you will know in advance if something is negatively effecting it, and you will be able to be proactive about fixing it to get your credit score back! This will indeed save time and make your life so much more simple.
Like most things in life, ignoring a problem such as a low credit score will not make it get any better. Credit monitoring will give you the tools you need to dig in and get your credit back on track!
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Well of course we think so, but we are the providers of the service, so let me take a more nonobjective look at it. Some of the pro’s. It will help your prevent ID theft, it will let you monitor your credit reports, it will keep tabs on your credit scores. And then the cons the biggest con is the cost per month. Many critics claim that it may not be worth the monthly fee, I disagree.
First lets look at the obvious pros. Unlimited access to your credit report. Ok yeah not to exciting really, but its important. When you first sign up for credit monitoring you will want to go over your reports with a fine tooth comb to ensure all the information that is on the reports is up to date, and more importantly accurate. If there is any information that is inaccurate you can quickly address it, and make sure it gets removed. After that you will not need to look at your reports very often, as the service will monitor all your reports and if there are any changes made to your reports you will be notified by email.
Next pro is access to your credit scores, and not just one credit score like many other credit monitoring services offer, you will have access to all three scores. This is very important because this is how lenders see you, and your credit scores will determine what interest rate you will get on loans. Knowing your credit scores, and knowing what is effecting them in a negative way will help you to resolve and fix those credit errors, and help to improve your credit score. Going from a good to a great credit score can save you thousands of dollars over the term of a car loan, or even more on a mortgage.
And then one of the best reasons to sign up is to help your stay safe from identity thieves. This is by far the most critically argued benefits by critics of credit monitoring. These experts claim that credit monitoring services can not prevent ID theft. And since these services can not prevent ID theft, then they are not worth the cost per month. I agree, a credit monitoring service can not prevent ID theft on its own, but that’s not what it is meant to do. Its meant to be used as a tool to help you prevent ID theft, and then to protect you in the event that your ID is stolen.
I like to think of credit monitoring like I think of an alarm system on your home. It will not prevent you from being a victim of theft, but will will certainly alert you of a theft, and help you to take care of it in the quickest manner possible. If for example you are on vacation and a thief came to your home, if they heard the alarm, or if the cops show up very quickly you have a chance to catch the thieves, or lessen the amount they get away with. If you did not have the alarm system, the thieves could clean you out, and you would not know anything about it until you were home, at by that time it may be to late.
A credit monitoring service works the same way. There is no way to prevent you from becoming a victim of ID theft, but it will notify you as soon as it starts to happen, and that can prevent any damage from being done. ID theft works by the victim not knowing that they are a victim until months or years later, this will not happen if you sign up for a credit monitoring service. For this reason alone, plus all the other benefits, I think it is will worth the monthly cost.
ShareAre they the same? If not what the difference?
First off, now your credit report and credit scores are different. Your credit report is information about your credit life, it has accounts, balances, limits, inquiry, and personal information such as where you live. Your credit score is all these factors put into a score, it shows exactly how risky you would be to give credit. It is also very important to note that you have three credit scores, once from each of the three major credit reporting companies, Transunion, Equifax and Experian.
What about FICO? FICO is score generated by the Fair Issac Corporation. It used to be the most widely used credit score until recent years. The Credit Bureaus who own the data that was used to generate FICO scores have come up with their own credit scores, which are now widely used by many lenders. The scores we provide are generated be the three credit bureaus and are not FICO scores. You will receive all three of your credit scores when you enroll in our credit monitoring program.
Ok so then what is the deal with a free credit report from annualcreditreport.com? Every American is entitled to a free credit report every year, and it is done through the Annual Credit Report.com website, which is a great resource if you want to check your credit report. The problem is, you will not have access to your credit score, and without that, well, what good is it? We want to see our report card, not the work we have done right? Well there is some benefit, if you choose not to enroll in a credit monitoring program, then you will be able to scan your report for errors. The problem is you only have access to this once per year, so if someone has stolen your identity, then well, hopefully it was right before you checked it out! If not you will have quite a bit of clean up work to do.
I hope that clears it up for some of you out there! I know its all a bit confusing, but to keep it simple just remember, that your credit report is your file, all your history of anything credit related. The more credit you have over the years the larger this file will be.
Your credit score, it goes up and down all the time, and this is your report card, it will tell you on the day you check it where you stand in the eyes of potential lenders. Do not be discouraged if your score is lower than you are happy with. By following this blog, and reading the articles on here, we will give you advice on how to boost your score, and get it to exactly where you want it to be!
ShareWe are always striving to bring our customers the absolute best product they can have for the best price. Currently we offer credit monitoring of all 3 credit reports, but you only have access to your Transunion Report and Score. If there are any changes to your Experian or Equifax reports you are notified within 24 hours. Its a great way to monitor all 3 reports.
Coming very soon, we will now offer a way to not only monitor your 3 reports, but to also have access to all 3 credit reports, and all 3 credit scores. In addition to many other great tools.
We understand that right now the economy is still very tough for many of our fellow Americans, and that getting a job is tougher than it ever has been. As you noticed down below many states are using credit scores to show how worthy you are of getting a job, which as I said below is a outrages thing to do! Regardless of what we think it is happening. And with this we felt we needed to find a company to partner with that would show all 3 credit scores.
Look for our new product launching later this week!
ShareAlmost everything you do in your adult life will require a credit report. Buying a house, car, applying for a personal loan, some jobs or even financial assistance for your children may all require you to allow them to review your credit report. A credit report can be a rather scary thing at times. Many people do not understand all the intricate details of the credit report, and people often have no idea what the actual number means.
Understanding your credit reports is crucial to your financial future. It is important to be able to understand what is going on and if something does not quite add up. When you are able to identify when there is an issue it will be easier to report it and stop anything that may not be permitted. The faster you are able to catch identity thieves the easier it will be to be able to get your accounts back on track.
There are many aspects to understand about your credit report. The most common discusses is your rating. Your rating is what shows financial institutions how desirable of a candidate that you are. This rating shows if you pay your bills on time and on a regular basis and will also show if you use all available credit to you or if you have more available credit than you need. This credit reading is one of the major deciding factors on if you are able to get a credit card or take out a loan. The higher the rating the more desirable you are.
While the credit rating is the most critical it will not be the only factor in your financial institutions decision. They will look to see how many account you currently have open and of those accounts which ones are in good standing. They will also look into your history to see if you have had any charge-offs or currently have an account with their company. You are able to see everything that they will be able to see if you view your credit report.
Credit reports will list all accounts in which you were required to get or have credit in order to achieve the account. This covers a rather wide range of accounts, and the majority of people do not realize how often their credit is referenced by companies. Any loan, utilities account, cable, internet, insurance or many other accounts will all report to your credit report.
This means that should you fall behind in any of your payments your credit report will be affected. Keeping a good credit rating is rather hard to do. Sometimes bills just get missed or emergencies come up and cannot be avoided. Just keep in mind that all of the financial mistakes you make will show up here for all of your future financial institutions to see, so just make sure that any slip-up is unavoidable, and if at all possible contact the financial institution when it is going to happen. They will often be willing to work something out with you so that you do not get the hit on your credit report.
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If you need to find out what your credit rating is quickly, you’ll want to have access to an instant credit report. There are times when you may need to take a look at your rating fast, especially if you suspect that your identity may have been compromised. While there are a lot of ways to get access to your credit report, you need a service that delivers it promptly when you really need it.
Applying for a loan.
If you have a sudden emergency and you need to apply for a loan it’s good to have a copy of your credit report to bring in. This will speed up the processing on the loan and in some cases a loan officer can grant an approval instantly if you meet all of the other qualifying factors.
Your credit report will help determine the interest rate you will have to pay on the loan. If you have a low credit rating you will either be turned down or have to pay an extremely high rate of interest. If your credit is good, however, you’ll get a better rate and approval can be very quick in many cases.
If you have your credit report handy it will also serve as a piece of identification since it contains your Social Security number, telephone number, date of birth, address and full name. Of course, you will need to provide additional pieces of identification when applying for a loan.
Identity theft
If you suspect that you have become a victim of identity theft you’re going to want to see a copy of your credit report as fast as possible. Time is critical in this type of situation and you’ll need to act fast. If you have credit reports arriving on a regular basis to your inbox, you’ll have the security of knowing that if anything were to happen your credit, a report is on the way.
There is a lot of work to be done if your identity has been compromised and the sooner you rectify the situation the better off you’ll be. Having access to an instant credit report is vitally important in this day and age. Technology has stepped one giant foot forward and you need to keep up with it to protect yourself and your family.
By setting up routine access to an instant credit report you’ll be able to stay on top of your finances at every turn. It is a protective type of insurance to make sure that your identity remains safe. It is also good to have at hand in case a sudden emergency occurs and you need to apply for credit quickly.
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Were all human, and our lives are very busy. We all make mistakes, its just a fact of life. What hurts is when an honest mistake can lead to a change in your credit score. So what is my number 1 pick for top credit score mistake. Missing a payment.
A simple missed payment can make your score plummet. From a great score to bad in with a simple over site. If you do happen to miss a payment make the payment as soon as you can. The damage is done, but you will want to get back 0n track as soon as you can.
If this is your first late payment and you have a history of making payments, then you can call and ask to have it forgiving. You will have no luck with the first reps you get on the phone, you will have to speak to a supervisor. It will be frustrating, but it is worth it to stick at it. The first person you get is not going to allow you speak to a supervisor, they are going to tell you there is nothing they can do, they will make it seem like you have a better chance of having unicorn for dinner than to get this removed. Just stick with it, and keep asking to speak to a supervisor.
Once you have the supervisor on the phone, just explain to them that it was an accident, and that you have not done this before. Ask them as a valued customer if you could please have this one late payment removed. More times than not, they will remove it for you, and it will be taken off your credit reports, and your score will bounce back!
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We have been in business of credit reports, and credit scores for over ten years now, and these myths keep popping up year after year. Credit is confusing, and having some inaccurate information just makes it worse! Here are some of the top myths.
1. Checking your credit will hurt your credit score.
Ok so I can understand where this myth comes from, because it has some truth to it. There are two types of inquiry’s, hard and soft.
Hard inquiry’s do in fact hurt your credit score. These come from when you apply for credit, mortgage or a loan. They do have a negative impact on your credit score for a few months. These only come when somebody besides your self pulls your credit.
Soft inquiry’s are when you check your credit yourself. These types of inquiry’s do not have any impact on your credit score. This is the type of inquiry you get when you sign up for credit monitoring services. So the myth must die, there is no harm when YOU check your credit reports, or sign up for a credit monitoring service.
2. Your age, sex and income are factors in your credit score.
To be honest I am not sure where this one has come from, maybe since when we do apply for credit these fields are often on the loan applications. These factors have no bearing on your credit scores at all.
3. Credit card offers effect your credit scores.
I think this one may have originated from our number one myth, that checking your credit can hurt your credit score. These offers that come to you, even if they say you are pre-approved, they have yet to actually see your score. These lists are bought with specifics information, for example, they may want people who have credit scores between 700-750. The credit bureaus will sell them a list with this criteria. So no just receiving these offers will not hurt your scores at all. Now if you start to apply for all these offers, well thats a different story!
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We have been talking a lot about credit scores lately, and how they can effect you good and bad. We often over look what this is all based on, your credit reports. You credit reports are the backbone of all your personal financial data, you can lead all about them in our new articles section. Here are a few items that will scare even the most generous lenders.
1. You have a short sale on your credit reports. Many lenders will tell you that it will not have a negative effect on your credit scores, this is just plain wrong. It will show that the account has been settled, you paid less than you owed on the debt. This will have a sever impact on your credit rating, some say as much as a foreclosure. There is good news though, if you are in a position where you will need to do a short sale, you can ask the lender to not report the amount you paid to settle the debt, in this case it will not have an effect on your credit.
2. Many lines of credit. Lenders to not like to see that you take advantage of every line of credit you can get your hands on. Even if the accounts have small limits, they can still add up to a large amount. This will make lenders nervous that if you were to max out all these account that you would not have the ability to pay them off.
3. Co-signing someone else s debt. Again this is something that will scare lenders more often than not. If you had to cosign that means the person you have helped out is not able to get credit on his or her own credit score. Lenders see this as risky because what if that person stops making payments, will you have the means to pay that debt, and still be able to service a new loan?
4. Cash Advances. This in the eyes of the lenders can been seen as a act of desperation, it may be that you are unable to meet your finical requirements and have to dip into your credit cards to make it through the month.
These are some of the top 4 things that can appear on your credit reports that will scare off a lender. Keep in mind that they are not guarantees that you will not get credit, you will just have to be able to explain them and back them up with your own financial data.
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