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The Truth About Credit Report Monitoring Services
By Stephen Snyder
"Hello, this is the fraud department of American Express, is Stephen Snyder available?"That's what my assistant Brenda heard when she answered the phone recently.I quickly called back.The gentleman asked if I recently purchased anything from Sony Electronics and shipped it to New Jersey.New Jersey? I don't own property in New Jersey. So I told him, "No."At that moment I realized that I had become a victim of identity theft. American Express immediately closed the account and issued me a new card that I received the next morning. The person I spoke to at American Express told me it seemed like an isolated incident since my other accounts with them were not compromised...but recommended I carefully review my next account statement for any suspicious charges.Whew. That was resolved. I was lucky. But many people aren't so lucky.The average amount of time it takes for someone to clear his or her name and credit reports of ID theft is three months...at an average cost of $1,200.I'll never forget the first time I became a victim of identity theft...I had just presented the Credit After Bankruptcy seminar to 987 people in Columbus, Ohio (nice people there—well, except for one of them...)You see...several weeks later I received a telephone call from Nextel.Someone from our Columbus seminar had stolen my identity and bought 11 Nextel cellular phones with my credit card and had them shipped to a different state. (What do you do with 11 cell phones?)OK, during the seminar you can see my Social Security number and home address on the overhead transparencies when I show what my credit reports looked like after I filed bankruptcy.Shame on me.My wife, Michele, has nagged me about this for years. But to me it was a risk worth taking. All I know is, when I go to a seminar and look at overheads with a lot of information blacked out, I'm immediately suspicious. So I don't do it. But, as usual, she was right.Had Nextel not called, I would never have known my credit reports were accessed without my permission.So what is the best way to monitor activity on your three credit reports?To be honest with you, I had no idea. So I started to explore. I wanted a service that would put me 100% in control of all 3 of my credit reports and would alert me whenever there was a change on them.After several weeks of research I didn't find a service that made sense.The problem with 99% of the credit report monitoring services has been they don't monitor all 3 national credit reporting agencies at the same time.So you could subscribe to TransUnion's credit report monitoring service—but it monitors your TransUnion credit report.Or, you could subscribe to Experian's credit report monitoring service—but it monitors only your Experian® credit report.You get the idea.But what if the thief uses a lender that accesses a credit report that you aren't monitoring?Exactly.It just doesn't make sense...unless you're monitoring ALL THREE of your credit reports you're paying for a false sense of security. Monitoring only one of your credit reports is like putting locks on the front and back doors of your home, but leaving the side door wide open, allowing anyone to just come right in and rob you blind!I guess you could purchase each individual credit reporting agency's credit report monitoring service...but it would be expensive and cumbersome to manage three separate accounts (you'd have to remember a bunch of user names and passwords and access three different websites...way too much work.)So after this last identity theft episode I decided to use my contacts

and influence. I asked a colleague of mine who has worked for both Fair Isaac Corporation (the creators of the FICO® credit score) and Equifax (one of the three national credit reporting agencies) what service he would recommend.I was very clear about what I expected in a credit report monitoring service:1. I wanted to know when any new accounts were opened in my name2. I needed to know every time there was a credit inquiry made3. I wanted to know if/when my home address changed4. I needed to know when any changes were made to any credit accounts5. I needed all these things in one service that monitored all three of my credit reportsAnd the most important part...6. I needed to be able to receive any alerts via email or text messaging on my cell phoneA pretty tall order.My colleague told me that there was only one service that fit the bill.I had never heard of the company he recommended.In fact, not one person who approached me at the Credit After Bankruptcy seminar in the last 10 years has ever mentioned them. And I must admit, I was a little skeptical.But on his recommendation I decided to give the service a test drive in July 2005.To sum up my experience—I love it! I highly recommend you get this service, tooNow before I tell you the name of the service and how to sign up for it—there's another use for this service that I think you'll enjoy if you have kids (and I guarantee the company who created this service didn't think of this benefit).You can monitor the credit usage of your teenagers or college students.I think this is critically important because I'm astounded how many college students file bankruptcy due to taking on too much credit they cannot afford. Between student loans and buying a few necessities during their college years, many college students are earning a degree in bankruptcy!Would it make a difference if they knew mommy and daddy would be monitoring their use of credit? I think so.Now the bad news...The credit report monitoring service I'm going to recommend to you isn't perfect...It has flaws...The biggest one: they advertise that you'll receive your credit scores as part of their service. Don't believe it.They're not your real FICO credit scores. They use "fake" credit scores. Yuck. I was disappointed. My first reaction was, "You've got to be kidding." But it's okay. Remember, you're not using this service to monitor your credit scores. You're using this service to monitor and protect your credit reports.But there is one more not-so-obvious benefit to subscribing to this service.You can stop guessing when you should purchase your FICO credit scores again to see if they have increased. I've been known to purchase my scores every 60 days (do the math $44.85 x 6 = $269.10 each year).I don't need to do that anymore. I will now purchase my FICO scores only when I see activity that I feel will significantly change my scores and/or I'm getting ready to make a large purchase (e.g., a new car or new investment property).If you're working on increasing your FICO credit scores this service will REALLY help you monitor your results and save you moneyThe name of the service is Identity Guard Fraud Alert.To sign up, you must go to: www.TheBestCreditReportMonitoringService.com After you click on the link, it will take you to a page that summarizes all of the benefits of this service. Then you can click from there to be redirected to their official site.If you want to protect your credit and want to know when your scores are going up (without actually buying them), then this is a no-brainer.
Stephen Snyder is the founder of the After Bankruptcy Foundation a non-profit organization that provides free bankruptcy information and recovery steps. Stephen also writes a free weekly newsletter on bankruptcy recovery.

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