There is no doubt that identity theft is a huge problem in this country. If you have not spent any time thinking about how to protect yourself, then you need to start. The problems that come along with having your identity stolen can take years to fully correct. The loss of money and time can be hard to measure, and many victims have found themselves unable to purchase a home or a car as a result. Below are three tips for receiving the best ID theft protection possible.
1.Be Vigilant
The number of personal paper shredders sold in the United States has increased more than a hundred fold in the last five years. One of the main reasons for this is that people are being very protective of their personal information. All of your mail, including bills, credit card offers and bank statements, could provide a portal into your life should these documents wind up in the hands of an identity thief.
While, to some, it might seem like a bit much to take the time to shred all of your mail before throwing it away, it is that kind of vigilance that may stop you from becoming a victim.
The two tips below will stress the importance of getting help in protecting your identity from being stolen, but the task starts with you and your own actions.
The obvious moves, such as making sure that your social security number does appear on your checks and not giving out personal information over the phone, are just the tips of the iceberg. There are dozens of small steps that you can take to make sure that no one has access to sensitive information.
Among them: shredding your mail, frequently changing your online passwords and being sure to completely wipe your hard drive when selling or donating old computers.
Even if it feels like overkill, it is this type of care that will help you to protect your identity.
2.Don’t Do It Alone
While your own vigilance is one very important step in receiving the best ID theft protection, it is not the only step. Because there are so many possible ways for an identity thief to gain access to your information, it is almost impossible for you to remember to cover every base. That is why it is important to add the extra layers of protection available from any one of the companies that offer services designed to protect you.
One of the best ways that you can make sure that no one can open any types of financial accounts or take loans in your name is to put a lock on your credit report. Companies, such as Life Lock, handle this for you. For a small monthly fee they will lock your credit reports and monitor for unusual activity. They also provide reimbursement for any expenses should your identity be stolen.
In addition, services such as Life Lock also handle all of the leg work that is involved in working to get everything straightened out should your identity be stolen. That alone is worth the monthly fee to many, especially when you consider the hundreds – or even thousands – of hours it can take to get everything back in order.
3.Shop Around
While there are many companies that offer similar identity theft protection services, it is a good idea to shop around. In addition to pricing, you also want to take the time to fully compare all of the features and benefits offered by each of them.
Do not go just by what is listed on the website. Remember, what you see there is their sales material. Instead, you need to see the actual contracts from each company in order to make an informed decision.
Most will not send you a contract until after you have signed up. Because you are typically allowed to pay monthly and then cancel at anytime, sign up for more than one. Then, take your time reviewing the features of each as listed in the contract.
Once you have made your decision, just cancel the others. You will only be out one month’s fee for the ones that you cancel, but it is worth it to be able to know that you have selected the best identity theft protection.
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Like millions of Americans do each year, you may be shopping around for some credit repair options. Having a few dings on your credit can make it difficult to buy a house, car or obtain a credit card, so it is no wonder that people with less than perfect credit would seek a solution. Below are four tips for receiving the best credit repair.
1.Don’t Believe the Marketing Materials
If you do a quick internet search for credit repair, you are likely to find several listings from companies that make promises to teach you how to remove negative items from your credit history. Do not believe a word of it.
If it were truly possible to have such items removed then everyone would have excellent credit and, truly, there would be no purpose to the credit bureaus.
The truth is that all of those promises are aimed to do nothing more than convince you to sign up for the program and pay the fee. Sadly, once that happens, you will quickly learn that all of the promises that sounded too good to be true were exactly that.
To receive the best credit repair, you are going to have to ignore all of the marketing materials. Do not allow these promises to sway your decision. You will end up disappointed every time.
2.Be Ethical
Another dilemma that faces many seeking credit repair is the fact that many credit repair agencies encourage you to lie in order to get negative items taken off of your report. They teach you to claim that an account is not yours, even if you know that it does, in fact, belong to you.
The thinking is that if you challenge all of your accounts, that perhaps at least one creditor will fail to respond and, therefore, the item will be dropped from your credit report.
For obvious reasons, this is highly unethical. If you are seeking to receive the best credit repair, this should not including lying and being deceitful in order to get your way.
Instead, refuse to do anything unethical. Even though you might have to wait a bit longer for the negative items on your credit report to come off, at least you will know that you did it the right way.
3.Do it Alone
One thing that the marketing materials of credit repair agencies will not tell you is that you can probably do a better job of credit repair on your own. Keep in mind that negative items that are correct cannot be removed by any third party agency.
In some cases, however, the creditor will agree to remove some or all of the negative items. This is usually done as part of a settlement and is a courtesy from the creditor. No creditor is under any obligation to remove correct negative items from your credit report, even after you have paid the account in full.
If you have some late payments on credit card accounts, call the card issuer. Ask if they would be willing to remove any of the negative items that they reported in exchange for full payment on the account.
Not all credit card companies will be willing to do that, but you have a better chance of getting it done by speaking to them directly rather than trying to work through some third party.
4.What Are You Paying For?
Many credit repair agencies charge a high fee in order to give you access to their “secrets” that will allow you to transform your tarnished credit report into a glowing one. These secrets are not worth the paper that they are printed on. Do not waste your money.
Again, there is no way for a third party to remove any negative items from your credit report. Even if there are mistakes on your report, you do not need to pay a credit repair agency to have them removed.
Instead, simply file a complaint with the credit bureau on which the false item appears. They will investigate and, if it was indeed a mistake, the negative item will be removed at no cost.
While it would be great if there were some quick fix for a low credit score, the fact is that the only real credit repair comes over time by making on time payments and keeping your credit card balances well below their limits.
The good news is that you will probably be surprised at how quickly your credit score will start to climb once you begin to properly manage your accounts. Start today and before you know it, you’ll be on your way to the credit score that you want.
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Credit reports are designed to give you a clear picture of your financial health and creditworthiness. Sadly, not all credit reports are created equal. You don’t want to waste time or give yourself unnecessary financial stress by getting an incomplete or inaccurate report. Thus, it is important to get the best and most accurate credit reports each time you look at your credit history. Here are the top three tips for receiving the best credit reports:
1.Look where they’re checking
Your credit report needs to be a complete picture of your financial situation to be an effective financial planning tool. Many reports offer themselves up as complete but really only pull information from one credit bureau. This does you a disservice by forcing you to get multiple reports so that you can compare the data between them.
Your best bet for getting the best credit reports is to read the fine print carefully to track where information is being collected. In this way, you will know before you order the report which ratings agencies will be included. This can help you determine if the final information is correct or if you need to work on errors.
The sources for the information on your credit report can also dictate the terms. If your local bank is behind on reporting loan payoffs, you will see a very different report that if all the institutions were up to date. Understanding the why and how of the information pulls on the report can help you avoid problems and confusion.
2.Evaluate costs
Credit reports are available for a number of fees, or you can get your credit report for free. There are advantages and disadvantages to both the fee and free reports. When you think about why you want the credit report, this can help you determine whether you will be more benefit out of paying for the report or if you can afford to get your reports for free.
Free credit reports are available from annualcreditreport.com, which is sponsored by the US government and the Federal Trade Commission. However, these reports do not include a credit score, and they only pull information from one credit bureau at a time. To get a view of your credit report information from all three bureaus free of charge, you have to visit the website again and request the report from another agency.
For a fee, you can have your credit report anytime or all the time. With credit monitoring services, you have the option to get ongoing access to your credit profile. These services are available through each of the major credit bureaus and also through consumer advocacy groups or your home financial institution. Some of these credit report providers also provide score tracking as a part of their services.
3.Keep on top of errors
Finally, to ensure that you are receiving the best credit reports, you need to keep on top of errors in your accounts. Anytime you receive a credit report and feel it has erroneous information, you need to move to have it corrected immediately. Incorrect information can distort your credit score or be an indication that your account has been compromised.
The numbers around errors on credit reports vary, depending who is doing the reporting and what their motivations are for the statistics. According to some, there are 52 million Americans who have errors in their credit reports, an astonishing one in seven. However, other sources say that only 2% of credit reports have mistakes.
Many items that you may view as erroneous are actually signs of identity theft. If you are seeing additional accounts in your name, large balances owed on cards you don’t use regularly, or a sudden spike in credit inquiries when you are not in the market for a loan, someone else may be using the account. You will want to investigate and report this as soon as possible, as most identity theft victims who catch the crime within the first five months incur no out of pocket fees. If you have been pulling your credit report regularly, you will be better able to spot errors and document that charges were not made by you
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There are many different kinds of credit monitoring services available in the marketplace. You can see them advertised on television, hear their jingles on the radio, and read about them in magazines. However, with so many different options, how can you be sure that the service you have chosen is really the one that is right for you? One way to make an informed decision is to use the three tips listed below for receiving the best credit monitoring.
1.Understand what you are monitoring and why
The basic premise of credit monitoring is to provide you with an ongoing picture of your credit score and credit accounts. However, every consumer has a different set of needs. You won’t be getting the best credit monitoring for your needs unless you can clearly articulate what you are monitoring and why.
Start with your motivations. Why are you interested in credit monitoring services? Do you just want to know more about your credit score? Are you in the market for a major loan? Have you been a victim of identity theft and want to keep track of changes in your account? Pinpointing your personal motivation will help you narrow down the best offers for your personal situation.
You will also need to understand what you are monitoring with the service you select. Are you monitoring new account openings? Or are you looking for certain kinds of suspicious transactions. Some services are better at fraud alerts than others, and there are specific monitoring services for those rebuilding or repairing their credit after an identity theft.
For many consumers, the why is identity theft, but they are less clear on the what. Credit monitoring services are not designed to protect against identity theft; they only monitor activity, not prevent it. Thus, being sure that the service is going to give you the information you want and do what you expect is important before you start paying the bills.
2.Check the cost and the fine print
With all credit monitoring services, you will want to check the cost and the fine print. Many consumers complain that they didn’t realize the extent of the services they signed up for when they get their big, or complain that the services didn’t protect them from identity theft. Both of these major complaints can be addressed by knowing the finer details and charges associated with your credit monitoring account.
In the fine print of your credit monitoring policy, you will find the details about what activities are monitored and covered by the service. You will learn, for example, whether your service tracks activity across all three major credit bureaus, or if it only tracks activity from one bureau. You will also get the details about the notifications, alerts, and emergency actions that you are entitled to with the service.
The billing details are also important. Credit monitoring services are a billion dollar industry in America, and this is all tied to the recurring monthly charges for the product. Typically these charges are added to the balance of one of the credit account being monitored, which can surprise consumers who are looking for another kind of debit.
The billing details will also help you get clear on when and how to cancel the service if you want to avoid future charges. Some credit monitoring services are annual contracts, so you will want to evaluate this as you consider price points. Discounted annual rates are less impressive when you have to pay a fee to cancel the service.
3.Evaluate services regularly
Finally, to ensure you are receiving the best credit monitoring services for your need, evaluate the services regularly. Are they providing you with adequate alerts? Have you found that you don’t use the tool as often as you thought?
Understand your personal usage habits and the benefits you get from paying for the service so that you can make an informed choice about whether or not to continue with credit monitoring. Though they are advertised heavily as an ongoing tool, credit monitoring programs are something that consumers jump in and out of at will. Don’t be afraid to cancel or switch providers if you are not getting what you need.
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