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A comprehensive action plan to fight Identity Theft comprises of Deterring, Detecting and Defending against Identity Theft. Deterrence is the most important aspect of such action plan as it seeks to stop Identity Theft before it even happens. Some of the most valuable tools for deterring Identity Theft comprise of shredding, protecting personal information, and locking access to your credit report. In order to make sure deterrence measures are effective, you must make sure you have not been exposed to Identity Theft, by detecting Identity Theft when and if it happens. When it comes to detecting Identity Theft, the most valuable tool is Credit Monitoring.

Credit Monitoring is the monitoring of your Credit Report in order to detect any suspicious activity or change in your Credit Report. You can monitor your Credit Report by ordering a free annual Credit Report which you are entitled to have once every 12 months from each of the three Credit Reporting agencies. However, effective Credit Monitoring may require you to access your Credit Report more often than just once every 12 months. Companies offer such active Credit Monitoring service on a subscription basis, typically granting you: regular access to your Credit Report, alerts of critical changes to your Credit Report, and additional services such as wireless alerts, analysis tools, credit scores and more.

Whenever obtaining Credit Reports, or Credit Monitoring, such services are typically available either as 1-Bureau service (with data access to only one of the 3 national credit reporting bureaus), or 3-Bureau service (with access to data to all 3 national credit reporting bureaus). It is often advisable to see your data with all 3 bureaus (Transunion, Equifax and Experian); 3-Bureau Credit Monitoring typically costs about 30% to 40% more than 1-Bureau Credit Monitoring, but essentially provides triple the service (hence 3-Bureau Credit Monitoring is less expensive than obtaining individual 1-Bureau Credit Monitoring with all three Credit Bureaus).

There are numerous companies offering active Credit Monitoring services. Such service is offered by the three National Credit Bureaus: Transunion, Equifax and Experian. In addition, several independent companies also offer Credit Monitoring services. Some independent companies are essentially marketing companies, outsourcing the task of Credit Monitoring to one of the three National Credit Reporting Bureaus, who can provide their service on a "white label" basis. As defined in Wikipedia, "a white label product or service is a product or service produced by one company (the producer) that other companies (the marketers) rebrand to make it appear as if they made it."

Logically, if a consumer is concerned about Identity Theft, then such consumer should seek to keep his personal information private. Hence, many consumers who acquire active Credit Monitoring services would prefer to acquire it directly from one of the three National Credit Reporting Bureaus; such bureaus are already in possession of the consumer's personal data, and when subscribing to Credit Monitoring, a consumer may be prompted for such data for identity validation purposes. Otherwise, some consumers feel that if they acquire active Credit Monitoring from a company other than the 3 National Credit Reporting Agencies, then they have to provide sensitive personal information to an entity that did not have such information to start with, and they may have to also grant such entity certain authorizations or power of attorney.

When comparing different Credit Monitoring services, consumers often make the mistake of comparing different types of service. it is important to compare "apples to apples, and oranges to oranges"; compare one company's 1-Bureau Credit Monitoring, to another company's 1-Bureau Credit Monitoring, and compare one company's 3-Bureau Credit Monitoring, to another company's 3-Bureau Credit Monitoring. Within the same category, consumers need to compare the following features:

A- Frequency of Critical Changes Alerts (daily, weekly, monthly, etc...)
B- Method of Delivery for such Alerts (wireless, email, mail, text messaging, etc...)
C- Ability to access your Credit Report (1-bureau or 3-bureaus), and how often you can do so
D- Ability to access your Credit Score (1-bureau, 3-bureaus, Fico or other), and how often you can do so
E- Payment plan (whether you have to pay an annual lump sum payment for service, or a regular monthly payment)
F- Free Trial Periods
G- Commitment / Cancellation Policy
H- Customer service availability, and toll free availability
I- Identity Theft Insurance availability and details (such as deductible, and types of expenses covered)
J- Analysis Tools
K- Identity Theft Recovery program if any (including features and associated costs)
L- Other features (such as ability to lock your credit report, etc...)

It is advisable, when comparing different Credit Monitoring companies, to list all features within the same category next to each other. For example, at the website found at www.CreditLock.com , consumers who click "I Want to Monitor My Credit Report" are directed to choose between 1-Bureau and 3-Bureau, and then are presented with a choice between Transunion and Equifax, and are presented with tabulated details of the features of both services.

Many consumers are often confused as to whether it is worth it at all to get an active Credit Monitoring service. Several critics of active Credit Monitoring services advise consumers to simply monitor their Credit Report themselves by accessing their free annual credit report (link available at end of article). Although such tool is definitely valuable, an annual examination of your Credit Report may simply not be sufficient. If a criminal steals your identity immediately following your examination of your free annual credit report, you may not discover you are a victim of Identity Theft for another 12 months. During such time, a criminal can

enables you to immediately limit any financial damage associated with Identity Theft, then it may well be worth the cost. An article published May 21, 2007 titled: "Identity Theft Protection: Is Credit Monitoring Worth Paying as Much as $15 per Month" analyzed such cost on a risk adjusted basis, and derived an actual dollar value associated with the financial benefit of the service (assuming such service is successful in mitigating Identity Theft related losses). What is most important is for consumers to be able to objectively compare various active Credit Monitoring services, by examining each of the features listed above within a specific category of Credit Monitoring (1-Bureau, 3-Bureau, or other).    Email Article


Related Links:
Credit Report Lock Down
Credit Monitoring
1-Bureau Credit Monitoring Features: Transunion & Equifax
3-Bureau Credit Monitoring Features: Transunion & Equifax
Credit Reports & Free Annual Credit Report