A research conducted by Experian in January 2011 calculated 692 as the national average credit score. Many other surveys in different parts of the year found the average credit score of a number of states above 700. While it is good to know that more than 58% of the credit holders in the country have their respective credit scores above 700, a big portion of the population still lives with below average and poor credit scores. An important step in improving credit profile is through regular credit monitoring. Besides, there are many reasons like credit evaluation before loan application and identity protection that call for the need of credit report monitoring.

However, the annual free credit reports from the three credit reporting bureaus are not sufficient to meet the credit monitoring requirements. This is when you need to choose a credit reporting service with the most useful credit monitoring and identity protection features. We lend support in this direction by assisting the credit holders in choosing the best among the available credit score and credit report services. Learn the importance of credit monitoring and how we can help in the same.

Credit Report Monitoring – Why You Should Be Concerned?

People around you might be going gaga over the importance of credit monitoring and you might be wondering whether you need it or not. The fact is that if you don’t show concern in holding up your credit report on regular basis, you are actually living under the rocks. The following 10 important benefits of credit report monitoring are worth your attention:

• Accurate and Timely Credit Information: As a credit holder, you must know whether your regular credit related activities are being reported to the credit bureaus or not. If your credit report reflects successful and timely payments, it will significantly boost your credit report. However, if the creditors are not reporting the information to the credit bureaus, you need to contact and reason out with them.
• Improving Bad Credit Score: If you have been suffering from bad credit score, you are highly eligible for regular credit report monitoring. Credit reports provide detailed information on what negative factors are restricting your score from improving. Regular monitoring will help you work on these factors and obtain assistance in improving your score.
• Maintaining Good Credit Score: Improving credit score is not enough, as it must be maintained once improved. You can’t relax after scoring well in all three credit reports. Your credit profile must be continuously monitored to ensure that the credit scores don’t fall below the level achieved.
• ID Theft Prevention: Preventing credit identity thefts and frauds is indeed the most important reason for credit report monitoring. As per the 2010 statistics, more than 15 million credit users in the country suffered from misused or stolen identities. Prevention is always better and possible identity threats can be prevented by keeping credit report under surveillance.
• Disputing Credit Report Errors: One of the top reasons for the credit scores turning bad is the errors and wrong entries found in the credit reports. Even if the three credit reporting bureaus work in fair and efficient manner, the chances of mistakes in the credit reports can’t be overlooked. As a credit user, you must take interest in recognizing these mistakes and disputing them with the concerned bureau.
• Improving Chances of Loan Approval: You must be aware of the fact that the process of loan approval is not completed without the enquiries that potential lender make in credit accounts. These lenders and credit providers find it essential to evaluate the risk factor associated with the applicant. No matter whether you apply for a home loan or a new credit card, the lenders and creditors will certainly evaluate your credit reports. Credit report monitoring in advance will help you learn about your credit standing. Moreover, you can use it as an opportunity to improve your score before applying for loan to get better deals.
• Jobs and Promotions: Your credit profile will also play a significant role in getting a desired job or promotions at the workplace. Every employer makes it a point to assess the creditability of his employees before hiring or promoting them. With the habit of regular credit monitoring, you can simultaneously weed out the factors that will affect your bright prospects.
• Better Insurance Deals: Just like lenders, credit card companies and employment providers, insurance companies also take interest in the credit history and credit score of their clients. One of the best ways to find cheapest deals on auto insurance, health insurance or any other type of insurance is by maintaining a good credit score. And this can be made possible with regular credit monitoring.
• Better Credit Management: Bad credit scores may also occur due to bad credit management. Many credit users often have the habit to overspend without keeping an eye on the credit limits. They also ignore the importance of paying the bills on time that adds bad remarks to their credit reports. If you regularly indulge in credit report monitoring, you can increase your credit management capability.
• Saving Time and Money: According to a research in 2010, the average cost of resolving an identity fraud issue was $373 per credit user. Moreover, the average time taken to resolve such an issue is 21 hours. Credit monitoring can help you avoid the wastage of time and money by preventing identity frauds and other credit related threats.

Choosing Credit Monitoring Service – How Can We Help?

Counting on the importance and advantages of credit monitoring, a number of credit monitoring services have appeared on the scene in the past few years. These services offer a variety of features in the form of credit monitoring plans and products. The best way to choose among these plans and products is by reviewing and comparing them at one place. Our website is a favorable resort for the credit users to decide on a service with the best features.

We keep an eye on these services and try them to adjudge their capabilities. You can find reviews about credit report, credit score and identity protection services and compare them on the basis of a number of factors:

• Choose among the service offering credit reports for one or all three credit bureaus, including Experian, Equifax and TransUnion.
• Find reviews for the services offering free credit scores maintained by one or all three credit bureaus.
• Learn which services offer daily credit monitoring and issue alerts via email and text messages to inform about the credit changes.
• Choose among the best services offering an array of identity protection features like lost wallet protection, internet black market scanning and so on.
• Get the best identity theft insurance up to $1 million with the most useful credit monitoring services.
• An important feature to compare is the free trial offer made by different service providers. Learn which services offer free credit monitoring trials.
• Finally, compare the services with the best features on the basis of the monthly subscription cost.

What Basically A Credit Report Is?

A credit report is a file that contains information about the credit history of a credit user. Your credit report deals with the information related to your loans, bill payments, late payments, records of defaults and other credit related activities. There are three credit reporting agencies that prepare individual credit reports for every credit user. As a result, you will have three different credit reports, one from each of the three credit bureaus that include Experian, Equifax and TransUnion.

A credit report is prepared by a credit bureau from the information received from the lenders, creditors and other sources with whom a credit user deals with. Every credit user is entitled to receive a free copy of each of the three credit reports on annual basis. In order to obtain credit reports more than once a year, you will have to pay a price. The need for credit report monitoring more than once can’t be avoided, as cited by the 10 reasons described in the previous sections.

What Does Free Credit Report Include?

If you are planning to get your first free credit report, you must know the categories of information it will contain:

• Personal information which is also known as identifying information is the first section of a credit report. This includes the name, social security number, current and past addresses, date of birth, telephone number and driver’s license number of the credit user. Information about the employer and spouse is also included.
• Credit history on a credit report includes information about the credit accounts. This includes kind of account, date of opening, loan amount, credit limit, monthly payments and account status.
• The third category is that of public records that contain information about defaults, late payments, bankruptcies, tax liens and court proceedings and judgments.
• Finally, there is a category of credit inquiries made in your credit profile by the lenders, creditors and others. These include hard and soft inquiries.

A credit report is like the mirror to your financial living and a record of your credit-related activities. Our website has been designed to meet the individual requirements of different credit users to help them maintain a good credit profile through fast and easy credit monitoring.