Do You Need More Than One Credit Monitoring Service?
They are very important in one’s financial life as they represent the credit report and credit score of an individual. Your credit reports and scores are also the information that lenders use to determine whether or not you are worthy of credit and at what rate they are willing to grant you credit. It is therefore imperative to check credit reports frequently to ensure they are error-free and do not indicate signs of identity theft that may harm credit. It is not a secret that numerous consumers sign up for credit monitoring tools to monitor their credit reports and scores from all three credit reporting agencies, including Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion.
Generally, many reliable credit monitoring companies exist, including Credit Karma, IdentityForce, Credit Sesame, and others. These services offer facilities through which one can track the changes being done to credit reports as well as credit scores by the various credit bureaus. Many also offer notifications that inform you about changes to the credit files you have with them.
With choices on credit monitoring services, a question could be whether one needs another service for tracking their credit status or not.
There are a few key factors to consider when making this decision:
In the same way, the three credit bureaus.
The only reason multiple services matter is that they help you to have access to all three credit reports of the credit bureaus. The three major credit bureaus that compile data on your credit history maintain their records according to data provided by your lenders. Which may cause some differences in the structure and specifics of the credit report to the lenders.
This way you can always have a full and up-to-date picture of everything about your credit. If you depend on one of the monitoring services you might realize that an important report was made to one of the other two bureaus.
Inclusion of Additional Information on credit scores
One more possible advantage of subscribing to multiple monitoring services is finding information about other types of credit that are not reported in regular credit check services.
Some monitoring services are coupled with other databases; for example, a monitoring service may also check checking or savings accounts and records of utility bill payments. Such types of non-traditional data may facilitate credit decisions through agencies like FICO Score XD and UltraFICO. Therefore, one can get a competitive advantage in terms of overall credit health by checking the reports.
Credit scores
The monitoring services also provide information on members’ most recent scores which are often updated monthly or after some weeks. The catch is that each service usually reveals only a single type or a couple of types of credit scores. For instance, Credit Karma tracks your VantageScore from TransUnion and Equifax Equifax credit monitoring services. It gives your Experian-calculated FIMO Score 8, as well as, IdentityForce.
If your account has more than one service, your scoring can be checked based on credit scoring models that can differ in terms of their algorithms. This may offer a more complete picture of your credit profile and possible scorecard computation methods.
Identity theft protection
Other benefits are offered by credit monitoring companies such as identity theft protection features like existence monitoring of your social security records, court records monitoring, stolen funds reimbursement, and insurance against fraud. Including an identity theft service as part of a range of services provided can give reassurance beyond basic credit monitoring. Sometimes you can sign up for one dollar per month, but, as a rule, credit monitoring and identity protection are provided together in the same service, for example, IdentityForce UltraSecure + Credit or Lifelock Ultimate Plus.
Disadvantages of Employing Several Monitoring Companies
While there are some advantages to supplementing your main credit monitoring service with an additional one or two, there are also some potential negatives:
- Expense – Almost every service comes with a certain price that can be monthly, yearly, or a one-time charge, and having more than one account could be expensive. These basic features are typically offered at a cost within the range of 10-15 USD per month at minimum. And a separate Identity theft protection plan for almost always expensive if included in the package. Hence, two or three services will not take long to reach $30-45 monthly rates or even higher.
- Repetition – Overall, if all three of your credit files are similar, then there may be a lot of repetition when you switch between the various views on the dashboard. You’ll be wading through a sea of simplistic informative notifications and status changes in every social service. Hence, the amount of time that is needed to be devoted to be able to enjoy multiple memberships should be put into perspective with the extra benefit that one would be getting.
- Presence of multiple accounts - This is especially the case if a user subscribes to three or more monitoring services which means having to remember more than one account with the corresponding passwords and user names, which may be inconvenient to some people. However, most of these service providers have integrated a tap sign-in feature that is linked to a Google, Apple, or Facebook account with the email address.
Weighing Your Options Carefully
Therefore, whether to enroll for multiple credit monitoring services entirely depends on the specific goal and objective of using credit, the need for security, current financial status, and the capacity to gain a deeper understanding of one's credit status.
Here are some final recommendations for determining if multiple services are right for you:
- So if you only require simple credit notifications and score monitoring, one reputable multi-bureau credit surveillance service would be enough such as Credit Karma or Credit Sesame. Many give Transunion and Equifax reports and quality scores for no monthly cost at all. Do not sign up with services that would give you hefty monthly fees for tracking your credit that you can get from somewhere else.
- If you want to be worry-free, there could be value in subscribing to a monitoring service with even more identity theft protection features – especially, if you have just been through a breach of your identity data. Search for those that offer insurance reimbursement guarantees, and comprehensive existence check and authorize, which can not be obtained from free credit reports.
- If it is possible to get full insight into various credit scoring models ahead of time and it has a bearing on the major financing needs in the future, perhaps a second full-scale monitoring program should be added to provide different views of the credit score over time. Especially check services that can offer scores for mortgage, auto, and personal loans such as FICO Score 2, 4, and 5 and VantageScore.
In a nutshell, yes, one credit monitoring program satisfies most fundamental credit tracking needs for many consumers, but there are potential advantages to using multiple providers simultaneously in specific circumstances if your situation requires it, scoring perspectives, or identity theft protection. First, consider your requirements and preferences and then determine if multiple memberships are the solution for your credit monitoring.
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