A lot of consumers are curious just what credit protection services do. With so many different forms of credit protection popping up left and right, it can be difficult to determine what is essential and what is more of a luxury item. With millions of American consumers falling victim to identity theft each year, credit protection services can be a way for consumers to fight back and not become a statistic.
Credit protection services will monitor all three of your credit reports from the three major credit reporting agencies: Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. They will provide you with copies of your credit report, information on your credit score, and offer financial assistance if your credit is stolen while under their services. Along with these essential services, there are a few other services that some credit protection services will offer as well. Items such as removing your name from mailing lists, monitoring online sites that store consumer information for sale, match your name to your address and ensure no one is changing your address, and assist you in the case that you have lost your credit or debit cards.
There are a lot of credit protection services that offer insurance protection as well. That means that if you do have your identity stolen, they will reimburse you any financial aspects for repairing your credit as well as assist you in the overall process for recovering from identity theft. Remember that credit protection services can only do so much. A lot of the prevention and recovery process will fall on the shoulders of you, the consumer.
You should never rely fully on credit protection services to prevent you from becoming a victim of identity theft. Just realize that in comparison to the advanced technology identity thieves are using, most credit protection services are rather low-advanced. There are a lot of things credit protection services cannot protect you from. For example, a lost of stolen wallet is not something your service can prevent and for the first two hours after it is lost or stolen, they cannot prevent much from being used.
A lot of the services a credit protection service offer are things you can also do yourself, if you have the time. That means you do not have to use credit protection services in order to protect your identity. Only you can decide whether or not a credit protection service is right for you or not.