Credit Reporting: What Does It Mean
The Definition of Credit Reporting
Credit reporting refers to creditors alerting the three major credit bureaus in the United States when you take certain actions. When you open up a new credit card, the credit bureaus will be alerted by the creditor that the account has opened. The credit company will also let the credit bureaus know the date that the account opened and the credit limit on your account. As you make payments (on time or late) these are also reported to the credit bureaus. Inquiries (requests for new credit) are reported, and the amount of available credit you have used is also reported to the credit bureaus. Finally, if there are judgments against you or you declare bankruptcy, this is reported as well.
Why Credit Reporting Matters
Credit reporting matters because the information on your credit report dictates what your credit score is. A record of on time payments, having a mix of different credit and keeping your credit card balances low can allow you to have a good credit score and to get favorable loan terms. A record of late payments, non-payment and maxing out your credit cards is going to result in a low credit score. Lenders, including mortgage and auto lenders and credit card providers, are going to look at your report and at your score to determine if lending to you is a big risk or a good investment.
Understanding What Is on Your Credit Report
Because your credit report is so important, it is a good idea to keep regular tabs on what information is being reported about you to the credit bureaus. This means you should check your credit report regularly to see what is on it. Checking your credit report regularly also helps you to ensure that there aren’t any mistakes being reported and can even alert you if someone has opened a credit card in your name without permission.
Services such as IDENTITY GUARD® Platinum allow regular access to your credit reports so you can see details about your credit reporting. Learn more today.
Reasons to Have a Credit Monitoring Service
There are lots of different reasons why you need a credit monitoring service. A service that permits you to monitor your credit can help you to protect your financial stability, keep an eye on your debts, spot mistakes on your credit report and also identify when a criminal identity theft may have occurred. Since your credit score is very important as it dictates whether you can take out a loan and at what interest rate, you really need to make sure you are monitoring your credit at all times.
A Credit Monitoring Service Can Help You to Identity Mistakes
A study by the Federal Trade Commission revealed that 262 of the 1,001 people in the survey had a mistake on their credit report. Which means that around one out of every four people might have incorrect data helping to determine their credit score and whether they can qualify for a loan or not. In 5.2 percent of the cases, the individuals had errors that were severe enough to actually affect whether it was possible to get a loan or what the interest rate on the loan could be. A mistake on your credit report might cost you thousands, or even hundreds of thousands, of dollars. You should catch these mistakes as soon as possible, and a credit monitoring service will help you to do that.
Monitor Your Debts Using a Credit Monitoring Service
Debt repayment is one of the most important things you can do to improve finances, and a credit monitoring service will help you to be proactive about repaying your debt. Whenever you look at your credit report, you can see what you owe all in one place. Then you're able to watch how your total debt goes down, make sure that creditors are reporting updated balances and watch your credit score improve as you repay the debts that you owe.
A Credit Monitoring Service Is a Useful Tool to Prevent Identity Theft
Many credit protection services such as CreditProtect®, Identity Guard®, and CreditProtectX3® can be useful tools in protecting yourself from identity theft. If somebody opens a credit card in your name, misuses your card or misuses your personal information, you can find out about this promptly by keeping regular track of your credit and by receiving alerts for certain targeted events. You should thus be able to take swift action when your identity has been stolen, hopefully stopping the criminal before major harm is done. Find out more about this important feature of credit monitoring services today at http://www.identityguard.com.
Three Benefits of Credit Report Monitoring
If you are interested in monitoring what is happening with your credit, credit report monitoring may be the answer. Credit report monitoring lets you see any changes that occur to your credit report or your credit score. This can give you the financial information you need to take control of your finances and it could also allow you to safeguard your identity. There are several benefits of monitoring your credit report and score including the following .
Credit Report Monitoring Boosts Understanding of Your Financial Picture
Whenever you take on any kind of debt, the debt appears on your credit report. Your credit report, consequently, offers an overview summary of all of the debts you have. This includes your mortgage balance and also the balances on any credit cards and other loans you may have name. You’ll also see how much credit you have available on your open credit cards. Seeing all of this information at once lets you know what you owe and helps provide a picture of your outstanding debts.
Credit Report Monitoring Helps You Catch Mistakes
Credit card companies and banks aren’t perfect and sometimes they make errors. In some instances, they may report that a payment was made late when it wasn’t or they may provide an incorrect loan balance. Sometimes, creditors may even mistake you for someone else and can put information on your credit report that doesn’t apply to you. Credit monitoring enables you to see these errors so that you can contact the credit reporting agencies and correct them.
Credit Report Monitoring Can Help Alert You to ID Theft
Identity theft is a huge financial problem if it happens to you since credit can be severely damaged even though you didn't do anything wrong. If someone takes your identity, that person can use your personal information to take on loans and get credit or to consume services. The individual that stole your identity will, of course, not pay for the bills they have accrued in your name. Nonpayment, maxed out credit cards and even judgments against you can all appear on your credit report and can damage your credit score and your credit worthiness. You’ll end up working to correct the incorrect information and to contact financial institutions to let them know you weren’t to blame for the charges and debts. While you can fix your credit score and get the incorrect information removed, this can be a very time consuming process and the longer the thief has your identity the more you may need to undo. If you monitor your credit report, hopefully you’ll spot the identity theft more quickly and put an end to the misuse of your data before your credit is totally damaged and there’s a lot to undo.
If you are interested in credit report monitoring, you can use a service such as IDENTITY GUARD® to help you keep tabs on your credit.
How Does Identity Theft Work?
While you may have seen dire warnings concerning the need to protect yourself from "identity theft," you might not be sure of just what identity theft is, or of the way it can harm you. In order to protect your personal information from identity theft, you should understand just what it means when someone steals your identity.
What Is Identity Theft?
Identity theft occurs when someone uses personal identifying information that does not belong to them. A victim of ID theft, as an example, may have his name and social security number used by someone else. An identity thief may also steal someone else’s birth information or insurance information.
What Is the Reason for ID Theft?
The crime of identity theft occurs mainly because the thief would like to obtain some sort of gain from using the victim's identity. For example, the identity thief could use the victim’s insurance information to be able to obtain medical services without having to pay for them. A target of identity theft can have his social security number used by someone who is trying to get a job, or used by someone who is trying to obtain a credit card for fraudulent purposes. The thief benefits from the use of someone else’s information in many ways while the victim is left to contend with the mess the criminal made.
What Effect Does Identity Theft Have on Victims?
Victims are often hurt by identity theft since they can end up having information on their records that is not accurate. For instance, if you're a victim of identity theft and had your medical information stolen, then you could have inaccurate information about treatment or diseases on your medical records. This could cause you to suffer once you try to get care. If the victim of the identity theft got his social security number used to get credit, then this could result in a history of maxed out cards and nonpayment showing up on a credit report. This could affect your credit score and you could then struggle to get credit or be charged high interest rates due to a poor credit score.
Because identity theft can result in such an adverse effects, lots of people will try to safeguard themselves using resources such as IDENTITY GUARD; in their efforts to identify signs of ID theft early and to stop it before it becomes a serious problem. Discover how you can be protected by going to http://www.identityguard.com.
When Does ID Theft Occur?
ID theft is a crime that occurs when someone’s identifying info is stolen. The criminal will use the personal identifying information of the victim for some kind of personal financial gain. For instance, the thief could use the victim’s information to get credit and spend money that won’t be paid back, or to use services without paying for them such as medical services. The theft of your identity is a significant crime and it could happen to anyone, anywhere.
The Internet and Your Identity Theft Risks
The Internet has, unfortunately, turned out to be a useful tool for those criminals seeking to steal the identity of others. Identity thieves will use a big assortment of different techniques and tricks to try to get ahold of people’s personal information online. For instance, a thief out to steal someone’s identity might set up a fake version of a popular website to try to get people to enter personal information and passwords on the website. A criminal may also send out emails soliciting information or could hack into personal networks and databases in order to get ahold of personal details. Protecting yourself online means being smart about how you share your information, particularly when on unsecured networks. Don’t enter information regarding your passwords, social security number or other identifying data on a website unless it is secure and you trust the website. You can tell if a site is secure because it will say “HTTPS” rather than just “HTTP.” Although you can never guarantee 100 percent that your identity won’t be stolen online, these pointers can help you stay safe.
Offline Identity Theft Dangers
You may believe that if you do not use the Internet, you're safe from identity theft. Sadly, this is not true. Anyone can become an identity theft target, although the Internet may increase your chances a bit. You may become the target of identity theft if someone acquires your information from discarded mail or papers that have your details on them. If you swipe your credit card in a store or use an ATM that's been tampered with, someone could steal your identity. The potential risks are everywhere in an increasingly digital age and it is tough to be 100 percent sure you are preventing ID theft all the time. While you can shred mail and attempt to be careful about where you use your cards, there will always be risks.
Protecting Yourself from ID Theft
Protecting yourself from all possible sources of ID theft is very difficult. One option you've got is to use tools such as IDENTITY GUARD® to alert you when certain suspicious events occur. When you get an alert, you can find out if your personal data has been compromised and act quickly to correct the problem. Come to http://www.identityguard.com to begin your protection today!
Advice for Identity Theft Prevention
Everyone should be aware of some fundamental identity theft prevention tips and techniques because of the serious consequences of having personal identifying info stolen. Your finances can be adversely impacted by identity theft and, the truth is, getting your identity stolen can impact many different areas of your life. This is the reason it is so important to understand how to protect yourself from having your ID stolen both when you're on the Internet as well as when you're offline, as you are always at a potential risk of ID theft if you aren’t sensibly cautious.
Online Identity Theft Prevention Tips
There are lots of opportunities for dishonest people to steal your personal identifying information if you use the Internet. Having said that, by using some basic safety precautions, you can do a great deal to lessen the risks of online identity theft. Probably the most important thing you can do is to make sure you only provide personal data on secure sites. You can check out the website address bar to ascertain if the site is secure, as the site will read “HTTPS” instead of just “HTTP.” There should be a little lock on the bottom of the screen on secure sites. You should not only be careful about what websites you give personal data too, but you should also be cautious about ever giving personal information out over email or over a network that is not secure.
Identity Theft Prevention Offline
In the real world, you face the possibility of identity theft as well. You can fight against this by shredding any mail that includes personal identifying data. You can even opt out of credit card offers and other marketing materials that might have too many personal details on the mailers.
Other Identity Theft Prevention Options
One other approach to protecting yourself from identity theft involves using identity theft prevention services. For example, IDENTITY GUARD® helps you in the fight against identity theft by notifying you if certain specific information posts to your credit report that suggests your identity has been stolen. This enables you to catch an identity thief far more quickly when they get started so you don’t have a lot of damage to undo from the miss use of your data. The quicker you discover a thief has used your identifying information, the easier it is for you to get your good name back and protect yourself financially. As an example, if you find out that a credit card has been opened in your name, you can contact the creditor immediately, close the account, put a freeze on your credit so that no further accounts can be opened and contact the police for an investigation. It is a lot simpler to do this with one card than when 20 have been opened already, so a timely alert regarding certain triggering events is an invaluable identity theft prevention asset. To start protecting your identity, visit www.identityguard.com today.