(MENAFN- Outreachxpert Ltd)
Hiring a credit monitoring company to track your credit score is an ideal strategy in debt management, as it enables you to be up to speed with your FICO credit scores. Most importantly, in case of identity theft, you also protect yourself from any possible credit fraud.
A credit monitoring company can dispute a credit report on your behalf and notify your credit company about fraudulent transactions that you may not be aware of. If this is recorded on time, your credit score can be repaired and restored on time to give you back control over your finances.
As you identify a credit monitoring company to work with, below are important factors to consider: -
1. Reliability and Timeliness
A credit monitoring platform should alert you in real-time whenever there is any change in your credit report. According to NBC News, 60% of complaints on credit bureaus are about erroneous entries on credit reports captured during the credit pre-approval processing. The complaints result in delays in approvals, costly follow-ups, and sometimes credit declinature.
To avoid such inconveniences, you should only consider credit monitoring platforms that track your credit score in real-time and alert you of any changes within a few minutes.
2. Pricing
Pricing is vital since you should only sign up for a credit monitoring service that you can afford. Most platforms offer different plans covering select services such as credit card reports, dark web surveillance, information breach notifications, social media insights, identity theft insurance, and more.
The vital consideration is to ensure that the service that you opt for covers your areas of vulnerability. For instance, if you are an Instagram fashion influencer, you should consider a credit monitoring service that tracts identity and credit card theft on the social media platform.
Pricing largely determines the benefits available, but there are hundreds of free options to consider if you cannot afford the monthly subscription fee. However, free services only offer basic alert services, and there is no guarantee whether the notification is done in real-time.
3. Warranties
If terms and conditions are friendly and the warranty terms are friendly, you should consider the credit monitoring service after careful consideration. For instance, one of the best platforms reimburses you up to $1m when you lose funds following identity theft. On the other hand, other applications can offer identity restoration services in their packages, which is ideal, especially if you have a busy schedule and don't have spare time to follow up with specialists after identity theft or credit fraud. Furthermore, some applications offer credit repair services to help you improve your FICO credit score after a breach.
The options are unlimited, but the strategy of getting the best credit monitoring services is to identify your vulnerabilities first before finding a service with optimal benefits.
4. Ease of Getting Credit Reports
The Federal Law compels the three credit agencies to give credit reports for free once a year. But the intervals are far apart, and you cannot rely on them if you want to track your credit score. When signing up for credit monitoring, one of your considerations is the frequency of getting the credit report, whether monthly, quarterly, annually or twice a year.
Most importantly, you should generate your credit report from the platform with ease whenever needed.
5. Terms and Conditions
Data protection conditions should be central for any credit monitoring site, given the sensitivity of financial and personal information. Hence, you should read the terms of the agreement, and there should be a declaration where it states that your data shall not be shared with another party without your consent.
While state data protection laws are consumer-centric, you should always take your time before checking the box for agreeing to the terms and conditions.
6. Ensure That the Company Is Licensed, Bonded, and Insured
A licensed credit monitoring company is accredited and allowed to transact the class of business at the federal and local levels. This is the first sign that the service offered is legitimate. Secondly, you should only consider companies that are insured. When a company is indemnified, you can recover your fiscal loss following a breach of professional duty. On the other hand, Bonded is an assurance that you may be compensated once the credit management company fails to perform a specific duty within the promised time. For example, alerting you in real-time about a suspicious transaction fails to perform a particular duty as per the sales contract.
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