Congressman Weiner reminds us to keep our info safe!
June 6th, 2011 - Posted by Sarah
Another great tip learned from Rep. Weiner: Never take compromising photos of yourself, and definitely never send them to anyone!
So it turns out that Representative Anthony Weiner's (D-New York) Twitter photo scandal wasn't a hack after all. But let it still be a reminder to keep your confidential information safe with identity theft protection services and to change your password!
Can I sign up for and pay annually for an identity theft protection membership service?
May 3rd, 2011 - Posted by Sarah
The following is an actual user-submitted question:
Q. Can I sign up for and pay annually for an identity theft protection membership service? I prefer to pay annually in lieu of monthly.
A. When you subscribe to a service such as identity theft protection, often it's more convenient or fiscally responsible to make one larger payment a year rather than a small one each month. Luckily, several of the services we review offer annual prepay options, and sometimes it even saves you more money:
TrustedID, $84.12 per year and up: This service monitors a number of different accounts for you and provides you with anti-spyware protection and one three-bureau credit report each year. We think it's the best value of the services out there, especially for families, because it offers a free 14-day trial and a 15% NextAdvisor discount.
LifeLock, $99 per year and up: This service gives you a free 30-day trial and monitors a wide variety of public records as well. NextAdvisor can offer it to you for 10% off. It's also a pretty strong value; it just doesn't have as many features as TrustedID.
Suze Orman's Identity Protector, $125.04 per year and up: Rounding out our annual prepay offers for identity theft protection services is Suze Orman's Identity Protector. When you sign up with Suze, you'll get three-bureau credit scores and reports. Plus this option bears the name of finance guru Suze Orman.
So whether an annual payment fits better into your budget or is less of a hassle, any of these three services could be great choices for you.
True Life: Stolen Identity
April 14th, 2011 - Posted by Sarah
When the university I was attending sent a mass email explaining that its employee database had been hacked, I kind of ignored it. Yes, I worked for the school as a teaching assistant, but I scoffed at the possibility that anyone would want my identity. I was a broke, full-time college student working three jobs, and I hadn't done anything financially significant in my life, so who cares?
Somebody cared. Somebody took my information and used it to apply for credit cards and go on a drugstore shopping spree. Who spends $500 at Walgreen's? A jerk, that's who.
But all was not lost. At the behest of my mother, I had taken the university up on its deal with Experian, a discount on a credit monitoring service much like ProtectMyID.com. It put a fraud alert on my accounts, sent me copies of my credit report, and sent me notices every time anyone tried to access my credit report or open a new account. I was a bit shocked to learn that many credit inquiries had been done on me, meaning that someone tried to use my information more than once.
I resolved the drugstore charge separately with my bank; when someone steals your identity, you're not liable for purchases you didn't make. But it scared me into looking after my credit religiously. If you don't have identity theft protection, get it before a stranger makes you wish you had.
Equifax offers lenders access to new FICO score
June 15th, 2009 - Posted by Joe
Equifax is making a new type of credit score available that will potentially change the way that lenders view your next loan application. Dubbed Beacon 09, the new Equifax score is based off of Fair Isaac's FICO 08 methodology.
The new score will generally penalize consumers less for one-time mistakes, such as paying a bill late. On the other hand, the new model is harsher on those people that carry very high debt to credit ratios.
Most lenders will continue to use standard FICO credit scoring methodology for now, but consumers should expect that the FICO 08 score methodology to become more frequently used over time. As such, it is a good idea to take a hard look at your current debt load and making plans to pay it down if you anticipate the need for additional credit in the near future.
Equifax is the second major credit bureau to adopt the new scoring methodology from FICO. TransUnion began offering the score back in January. It is unlikely that Experian, the remaining major bureau, will be offering FICO 08 any time soon as the two companies are currently involved in an ongoing lawsuit.
New "FICO 08" score debuts
January 29th, 2009 - Posted by Joe
Fair Isaac, the maker of the popular FICO score, announced that one of the major credit bureaus will begin offering a new version of the score called FICO 08. The new scoring methodology is expected to decrease some scores while improving others.
The new FICO 08 score was created provide more accurate scoring for those consumers with limited or damaged credit histories who may represent a larger risk to lenders than those consumers with more established credit. According to Fair Isaac, the net result of the evolving score is that consumers with more established credit histories should see slight increases in their credit score when calculated using this new methodology.
The catch is that it will likely be a very long time until this scoring system is widely in use. Lenders typically test any score changes extensively before they begin using them for important lending decisions. Additionally, TransUnion is the only one of the three credit bureaus that is offering the FICO 08 score as an option for lenders. Equifax is expected to begin offering the FICO 08 laster this year. It is unlikely that Experian will be offering this new score anytime soon as the company is currently engaged in litigation with Fair Isaac.
The original FICO score will continue to be the score that lenders use most for the foreseeable future. Equifax offers a free FICO score when you sign up for a free trial of credit monitoring service. You can learn more about Equifax and other credit report monitoring services at NextAdvisor.com.
LifeLock teams up with TransUnion
December 17th, 2008 - Posted by Caitlin
LifeLock, one of our favorite identity theft protection services, has entered into an agreement with TransUnion, one of the three major credit bureaus, in order to enhance the protection that LifeLock members receive. By working with TransUnion, LifeLock automate and streamline many of its processes, including setting fraud alerts with the credit bureaus and ensuring that they are in effect, opting out of junk mail and providing credit reports. By working together, TransUnion and LifeLock hope to further empower consumers and to handle their request and personal information efficiently and securely.
To learn more about LifeLock or other identity theft protection services, see our reviews and comparison chart. And see our credit report and score services section for more information about the three credit bureaus, including TransUnion.
1 million credit scores lowered by Sallie Mae
May 15th, 2008 - Posted by Joe
The largest provider of student loans in the United States, Sallie Mae, made a critical reporting error which artificially lowered the Equifax credit scores of approximately one million borrowers.
Like all lenders Sallie Mae reports account history information for all their borrowers to all three of the major credit bureaus including Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. In the most recent data transfer an error caused about 10% of all accounts, or about one million total borrowers, to appear delinquent.
Sallie Mae realized the issue and contacted all three credit bureaus. Equifax had already posted the information the impacted individual's accounts which immediately lowered their credit scores. Experian or TransUnion scores were not impacted.
The issue has been resolved and the Equifax credit scores have been restored for impacted individuals. Those who believe they may have been impacted are encouraged to contact Sallie Mae directly at 1-888-2-sallie. Sallie Mae will also provide credit references to impacted consuers upon request.
"We certainly and fully understand the importance of one's credit rating and we worked with urgency to resolve this situation," Said Sallie Mae spokesman Tom Joyce.
Those consumers that utilize a credit report monitoring service would have received immediate alerts when these changes were posted to their Equifax credit report and score. To learn more about credit report monitoring services we suggest visiting our credit report monitoring service reviews and comparison.
Reader Question: Are credit bureau fraud alerts still available?
April 1st, 2008 - Posted by Joe
This post is another in our ongoing series of "Reader Questions". if you have a question of your own on any of the services we cover please use our contact form to let us know.
Q:With respect to the Identity Theft company comparisons that you provide, Identity Guard states the following during an enrollment process:
As of April 2, 2008, the Credit Bureau Fraud Alert feature will no longer be offered through your Identity Guard service.
It seems to me that without this important feature, they are no longer worth the higher cost of $14.99 cost per month.
Have the other services such as LifeLock also discontinued this feature?
A: You are correct in that Identity Guard is in the process of discontinuing their fraud alert feature. They are the only service that we are aware of that is planning to discontinue fraud alerts. LifeLock most certainly still allows their members to set fraud alerts as a part of their identity theft protection service.
Identity Guard will continue to provide three bureau credit report monitoring that will allow you to monitor chanegs to your credit report with Experian, Equifax and TransUnion. This is a service that LifeLock does not provide, although LifeLock will give you one free credit report per year as part of the annual credit report program.
If fraud alerts are important to you, and we feel that fraud alerts are a very important part of preventative identity theft protection, then LifeLock is the best service from our perspective.
New FICO score will help some, hurt others
December 19th, 2007 - Posted by Joe
Fair Isaac Corporation, otherwise known as FICO, has created a new scoring system that will change how potential lenders may view your credit history.
FICO is a household name that is synonymous with credit scores, particularly to anyone that has ever applied for a home loan, auto loan or credit card. FICO estimates that 90% of major banks use their scoring methodology to analyze the credit worthiness of consumers.
The new FICO score, officially called FICO 08, was created to more accurately predict the credit risk of an individual. It will be more lenient on people who may have had a few credit slip ups in the past but otherwise have had fairly responsible credit practices and much more harsh on those who repeatedly make credit mistakes.
FICO provided these very helpful examples of how the new FICO 08 score may impact different types of people based off of their credit history.
This is great news for consumers that are actively working to improve their credit and adopting healthy credit habits and even more reason for those people that have habitually poor credit to take moves to improve.
The FICO 08 score also makes it extremely important to have a full grasp on the contents of your credit report as inaccuracies could cost you once the new formula begins calculating scores. The simplest and most effective way to get a full grasp of your current credit profile is to sign up for a credit report monitoring service. These services will give you access to your credit report, credit score and alert you to any changes on your credit report.
All of the credit bureaus, including Equifax, Experian and TransUnion, provide these services and we have reviewed and compared all these credit report monitoring services for the benefit of our readers.
Type carefully when looking for a free credit report
December 19th, 2007 - Posted by Joe
A recent study by USA Today and online security company Symantec found hundreds of websites that took advantage of typos to direct consumers away from their intended destination when searching for a credit report.
These sites have domain names very similar to those of the credit bureaus. For example, freecreditrepotrt.com may accidentally be reached by consumers that are attempting to visit Experian's FreeCreditReport.com. While most of these sites likely pose little threat to consumers, it is still important to be fully aware who is operating the website you are visiting before you engage in any business dealings.
One simple way to ensure that you are on the website you intend to be is to check the privacy policy and/or contact us links which are typically at the bottom of the web page. If these items aren't present or seem suspicious, it is a good idea to move along.
We here at NextAdvisor deal directly with all the major credit report monitoring services and make sure that all links on our site are valid and directing to reputable service providers. You can click on any of the links below to visit the official websites of each of the credit report monitoring services that we have reviewed:
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