Preventing Credit Theft

Identity fraud is one of the fastest growing problem in the U.S today. Every 4 seconds someone’s identity is stolen.There are now several id fraud protection services on the market to address this problem. ID thieves will go through your mail or trash, looking for bank and credit card statements, pre-approved credit offers, and tax information. Identity thieves may steal personal information from your wallet or purse such as identification cards, credit cards, or bank cards. Fill out change-of-address forms to redirect your mail. Acquire personal information you share on unsecured websites. Purchase your personal information from an inside source such as a store employee who acquires your personal information from a credit application or by skimming your credit card information when you make a purchase. Someone at your place of employment may sell your personnel records. Realizing how identity thieves steal and use your personal information and how difficult it is to stop it, many organizations are turning to id theft protection services to obtain better pro-active protection from Identity theft, keeping yourself safe from identity thieves. These services will monitor and alert you of any fraudulent activity.

The question now becomes which id theft protection provider is right for you. How do you easily compare the features of each one? That’s where a site with a comparison chart becomes handy. In addition to services that specialize in identity theft prevention, you might also want to consider a credit monitoring service to provide you an extra layer of protection that many id theft protection services don’t always provide. Many of these credit monitoring services offer a free trial where you’re able to get your free credit score .

There’s credit fileservices where you can view your information from one credit bureau. Other services let’s you to see your credit report from all 3 credit bureaus. TransUnion, Equifax, and Experian. This is crucial because the data contained in one credit bureau report may not match with what’s on the others. Also, various lenders may choose to view one or more of your free credit score online. And most offers do not provide a free FICO score for free. You only get to view what’s on your normal credit reports. But a FICO score is not the same as your regular credit report or score. It uses different set of algorithms for producing your FICO score. Many lenders utilize the FICO score to judge your creditworthiness. Therefore it may be prudentto obtain your FICO score before applying for a personal loan. Another feature that these services provide is identity theft monitoring. With some offers you only get the bare minimum while others provide total identity theft monitoring protection. These are some of the reasons why it makes sense to make comparisons between the features of these freecreditreport offers.