If you are anything like me, you HATE surprises, and when it comes to surprises there is one that takes the cake.
That is being surprised when it comes to your credit and credit scores.
With so many things like being approved for a loan, getting a job, and even car insurance rates being determined by your credit, wouldn’t you want to know for certain what is on there, instead of sitting at the dealership saying to yourself “no whammies, no whammies” as the salesperson walks off to run your credit application?
So with this in mind here are the top reasons I think it is vitally important to maintain an open credit monitoring account.
Credit Score Change Alerts
Wouldn’t you like to know if your credit score goes up?
Wouldn’t you also like to know if your credit score goes down?
Well, monitoring your credit can make sure you don’t face any surprises the next time you ask for a loan or new lines of credit.
A 25 point drop can have a negative impact on the types of loans and interest rates you qualify for.
A 30 point increase can make the difference for you to buy a home today.
So stay on top of your credit and track all changes.
And most important…
Make sure YOU are responsible for those changes.
Credit monitoring will ensure that there are no surprises anytime you ask for a new loan or credit card.
Know Who’s Looking At Your Account
Credit monitoring services allow you to see who is checking your credit score.
When you request new lines of credit, the lenders check to see if your credit is worthy enough for them to offer you any of their services.
Too many hard inquiries in a short period of time can have a negative impact on your credit score.
And credit monitoring allows you to keep track of how many times you ask for new lines of credit.
Don’t worry!
You can check your own credit as many times as you want without it hurting your credit.
These are just soft inquiries.
But if you’re looking to buy a new home…
Then you don’t want to ask for any new lines of credit before shopping around for a mortgage rate.
Remember:
You need to give lenders consent before they can pull your credit information.
You should question any unauthorized credit checks.
Credit monitoring can prevent identity theft in the early stages.
Identity Theft
Do you remember the data breach that happened to Target customers in 2013?
Yeah… that was bad…
And you might think that companies have learned from their mistakes…
But data breaches still happen all of the time.
And it’s not like companies aren’t doing anything to prevent data breaches either…
According to an Experian Report in 2015, 48% of companies increased their investments in security technologies in the past year.
And 73% developed a data breach response plan to prepare for a data breach disaster.
But despite the proactive measures…
Criminals are still getting sensitive consumer information and stealing money from unsuspecting victims.
In 2015, there were 13.1 million people that experienced identity fraud.
And identity fraud also stole $15 billion.
You don’t want to be the next identity fraud victim… do you?
Check for Errors
Credit reports have errors on them all of the time.
It’s your job to monitor your credit and look out for any mistakes or errors.
According to a Federal Trade Commision report from 2013, 25% of respondents found at least one error on their credit report.
And 5% of those errors were big enough to increase the interest rate on a loan.
So do you really want to just assume everything on your credit is correct?
Because it can cost you thousands of dollars in some cases.
Monitoring your credit enables you to check for mistakes and dispute them when you find them.
Don’t let mistakes on your credit report hang around for too long.
Someone is going to see it eventually.
Save $1000’s In Interest
It’s important to get your credit score as high as you can.
A higher credit score means lower interest rates on any loans you may need in the future.
This means you will save $1000’s on interest alone.
Just imagine the amount of interest you’ll save on two of the biggest purchases of your life:
A house and a car.
If you haven’t already, you’re probably going to make at least one of these purchases at some point.
Wouldn’t you want to save money on the biggest transactions of your life?
Monitor your credit and make sure your score keeps rising.
It will save you from a lot of headaches in the long run.
There are many credit monitoring service providers that do about the same thing.
If you are looking for a reputable company that we see many of our clients use, its IdentityIQ.
You’re free to use whichever company you want, this is just one that we know works well.
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