First, what exactly IS credit monitoring? Monitoring your credit simply means keeping track of changes on your credit report (like new lines of credit or changes in balances). The three main credit agencies TransUnion, Experian, and Equifax monitor your credit, and you can get your credit report once per year for free from each of them at: annualcreditreport.com. However, if you want to check your report more than once per year, regular monitoring of your credit can help you discover problems earlier to prevent identity theft and work on improving your credit score. Websites like creditkarma.com or wallethub.com are free to join and they can alert you to changes in your score, when a new line of credit has been opened, and may provide tips to help you improve your credit score.
So why you would pay to monitor your credit when you can access your credit report for free? Credit monitoring companies that charge monthly fees — like Identity Guard, Identity IQ, or LifeLock, will usually provide more current information on any changes on your report, send you alerts by text or email when changes occur, and some companies may even investigate suspicious activity for you. They also usually don’t sell your data, like some of the free companies may. If privacy is important to you and you want to actively monitor your report, it might be worth it to pay for a service. Also, check with your credit card company–some offer free credit monitoring as a benefit.
