What is Credit Monitoring?

Consumer credit reporting agencies offer to "monitor" your credit for a fee. Credit monitoring services can be costly. These services cost anywhere between $43.80 per year to nearly $150.00 per year depending upon the provider. Typically, these services say they will notify you if anything unusual or suspicious appears on your consumer credit report.

How to Monitor Your Own Credit

You can monitor your own credit and make sure that your record represents you fairly and accurately by ordering and regularly reviewing your consumer credit reports from the three major reporting agencies. You can request a report from each of the three consumer credit reporting bureaus at the same time. The advantage of reviewing the three reports at once is that you can get a complete picture of your consumer credit report history that could be reported to others. However, if you want to monitor the accuracy of your consumer credit reports throughout the year, request your report from one bureau initially, then follow up with another bureau's report four months later and the third four months after that. This is an effective way to monitor your credit at no cost.

If you find errors, no matter how small, be sure you get them fixed, and make sure that you contact all three bureaus with your change. You should receive amended reports within a week after the changes take effect.

Be sure you close long unused accounts that are listed as still active on your consumer credit report. An unused account is an opportunity for an identity thief. If you close an account ask that it be listed as "closed at the request of the consumer."

And most importantly:

Why it’s a Rip off

Credit reporting companies have found a gem in "credit monitoring". They have your credit data and sell it to just about anyone and everyone that comes along. But there's a problem. ID Theft is rampant and people are getting tired of it.

Enter "credit monitoring." The nice, consumer friendly credit companies are helping to solve the problem! See? We'll monitor your file and let you know as soon as something looks suspicious. All for a low fee.

There are a few problems with this.

• It doesn't stop ID theft, it just let's you know that it's happening faster than you would otherwise.
• It's worse than insurance - At least with Insurance, you can control your level of risk. For example, if you don't drive much, your risk of an accident is much lower than someone who delivers pizzas. But you have no way to know if you are at more or less risk for ID theft. So you'll pay and pay and might never see any benefit from the money lost.
• There's a free alternative available - With the new law requiring the credit companies give you one free credit report per year, if you stagger them to get one every three months, you will be able to constantly see your credit report anyway. While this is not as good as monitoring would be, it's better than paying $150 or more per year for the "service".
• It's a type of fear-based sale - The credit companies are the reason the problem exists in the first place, but they will let you pay them "protection money" to stop it.
• Credit monitoring is big money - Did you ever wonder why there are SO many outlets for credit monitoring? Here's a hint: why were there so many outlets for home-equity loans? Because people are making money hand over fist on it. Any time you see some financial service that seems to have a million knockoffs seemingly overnight, (e.g. payday loans), you can bet that something is wrong.
• They charge way too much for the service - So you get an e-mail any time your credit file changes. There's almost no cost associated with this!
• It's not necessary if you live in a state that allows credit freezes - There is nothing, that credit monitoring buys you if you have a credit freeze on your account (as long as your personal password hasn't been compromised). That's because without your personal password that you use to thaw your account, no one can get access to your credit file.

Phoenix police have connected the pair to eight cases of auto theft, although the man boasted to investigators he used stolen IDs to rent 50 or more cars he then sold to smugglers, authorities said.

Police say the thefts have led to an emerging trend of "coyotes" using pricier sedans - rather than vans, trucks and SUVs - to maintain a lower profile while crossing the border with undocumented immigrants.

"All this tied back to human smuggling," said Detective Craig Walker, one of the Phoenix fraud and auto-theft investigators who noted the rise in stolen rental cars.

Walker added that the couple was candid in sharing information with Phoenix detectives. Police said they admitted to some crimes, describing a system of targeting victims with new cars - 2006 or newer - to take stolen documents, immediately open credit lines and rent the vehicles to sell to smugglers for less than $1,000.

"If they targeted these types of people, they figured there would be enough (credit) to live off (for a while)," he said.

Desiree Canez and Richard Somoza were arrested at a Phoenix motel July 25 after the Alamo rental agency activated a GPS device on a rented Infiniti QX56, which led detectives to the couple nearly one month after the vehicle was rented.

Canez, 39, is suspected of using stolen identities to sell several rented vehicles to smugglers. She faces six felony counts of auto theft, in addition to charges of identity theft and trafficking stolen property.

Somoza, 40, faces felony charges in connection with two auto thefts, though police say he told investigators the actual count is in the dozens.

Somoza reportedly dropped a duffle bag with stolen credit cards in a failed attempt to flee police. According to court records, "several profiles that included names, date of birth and account information" were recovered at a Phoenix motel room.

Canez is accused of using the identities of at least two women to fraudulently obtain 2008 model-year cars, including a Ford Mustang, a Dodge Nitro, a Chrysler 300, an Infiniti FX35 and a Mitsubishi Endeavor.

In one case police connected to the suspects, a 41-year-old Valley woman told police she lost her laptop, purse and other personal documents after her vehicle was stolen from a convenience-store parking lot nearly a year ago.

The woman, who did not provide her name because she is active-duty military, said she expects to spend the next couple of years trying to clean up her tarnished credit.

Funding the protection of presidential candidates is money well spent. This is one way to ensure the integrity of the electoral process and reinforces the notion that in a democracy, the personal security and safety of presidential candidates matters.

The Associated Press: AP Exclusive: Secret Service wants more money

When creating passwords or PINs, do not use digits of your social insurance number, mother’s maiden name, your birth date, any part of your name (first, middle, last).  Cop's don't use your badge number or call sign!

Watch your credit card expiration dates, if you don’t receive a replacement card prior to the date - contact the issuer.

Consider making your telephone number unlisted or listed without your address.

Sign all new credit cards immediately to prevent someone else from doing so.

Beware of mail or telephone contacts informing you of prizes and awards - especially if they ask for personal or financial account information.

A security freeze means that your credit file cannot be shared with potential creditors, insurance companies or employers doing background checks. Most businesses will not open credit accounts without checking a consumer's credit history first.  A credit freeze is a proactive step to protect your credit without telling the credit agencies you are a high risk for ID theft.  OptOutDetectives prefers the credit freeze method.