Credit Report Monitoring Services
Frequently Asked Questions about credit report and score services.
Why does my credit report and credit score matter?
There are three primary reasons why your credit report and score can have a huge impact on your life. First, companies use it to decide whether or not they want to lend you money to buy a house or car, give you a credit card, lease you an apartment, give you a cell phone plan, give you cable without having to prepay, and countless other important decisions that have a huge impact on your quality of life. If you have a solid credit history as indicated by your credit report and credit score, chances are companies will be willing to work with you on all these services. If you do not, chances are you will have a hard time getting even the most basic services without having to pay for them in advance.
Second, companies use your credit report to decide the interest rates that they charge you on loans, on credit cards and on any other type of loan or credit you get. This means that having negative information on your credit report can literally cost you thousands of dollars a year. Lenders and creditors typically use a credit score to make these decisions, which is calculated from information on your credit report. Let's use an example. Say you are buying a house and want to get a $216,000 mortgage. If your credit score is over 760 (indicating excellent credit), your interest rate based on current rates would be around 5.86%, which on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage would give you a monthly payment of $1,276. On the other hand, if your credit score was 630 (not very good but good enough to get a mortgage), your interest rate would be around 7.45%, giving you a monthly payment of $1,503. That's a difference of $227 per month, $2,724 per year and $81,720 over the life of the mortgage. Clearly, these are significant numbers. Of course, if your credit score was below 600, you would probably not be able to get a mortgage at all.
The third reason you need to know what's on your credit report is identity theft. Identity theft is one of the most common crimes today. In addition to monetary loss, victims of identity theft also suffer by having their credit histories decimated, leaving them with very low credit scores, unable to be offered any credit and even having current credit revoked. This can take months or years to fix and may never be entirely resolved. The first sign of identity theft is usually a change to your credit report, often a credit inquiry prompted by the thief trying to open an account in your name. If you subscribe to a credit monitoring service, you will be notified of any change to your credit report within 24 hours of the change and should be able to catch any suspicious activity before it results in fraudulent activity in your name.
Search our blog archives and frequently asked questions for more information about Credit Report Monitoring Services
Recently answered questions about Credit Report Monitoring Services:
Will a reduced credit card limit hurt my credit score?
The following post in our Reader Question series is an actual user submitted question. To maintain the integrity of the original question, we do not edit or change reader questions in any way.
Q: My bank is lowering my credit card limit, even though I always pay on time. Will this hurt my credit score?
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Why do I have different credit scores from TrueCredit and Experian?
The following post in our Reader Question series is an actual user submitted question. To maintain the integrity of the original question, we do not edit or change reader questions in any way.
Q: I have a 3 score report from True Credit and one from Experian. They have totally different scores. Why would this be? [...]
Reader Questions: Is there a free on line credit report service that has no ...
The following post in our Reader Question series is an actual user submitted question. To maintain the integrity of the original question, we do not edit or change reader questions in any way.
Q: Is there a free on line credit report service that has no trial or any other hidden fees?
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If LifeLock requests reports on my behalf, do I still get my 3 free reports p...
The following post in our Reader Question series is an actual user submitted question. To maintain the integrity of the original question, we do not edit or change reader questions in any way.
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Do credit reports show the drop off dates for delinquent loans?
The following post in our Reader Question series is an actual user submitted question. To maintain the integrity of the original question, we do not edit or change reader questions in any way.
Q: Do the credit reports from Equifax with Score Power show the approximate drop off dates for delinquent cards or loans?
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Why does my credit score fluctuate?
The following post in our Reader Question series is an actual user submitted question. To maintain the integrity of the original question, we do not edit or change reader questions in any way.
Q: Why does my credit score fluctuate by 3-5 points from one month to the next when I have paid accounts on time, [...]
Do the Virgin Islands use seperate credit reporting practices and bureaus?
The following post in our Reader Question series is an actual user submitted question. To maintain the integrity of the original question, we do not edit or change reader questions in any way.
Q: Do the Virgin Islands use seperate credit reporting practices and bureaus?
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I am trying to select the best credit report monitoring service for my needs ...
The following post in our Reader Question series is an actual user submitted question. To maintain the integrity of the original question, we do not edit or change reader questions in any way.
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I just applied for a loan and was told my FICO score is 856. How is that pos...
The following post in our Reader Question series is an actual user submitted question. To maintain the integrity of the original question, we do not edit or change reader questions in any way.
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Can I print my credit report?
The following post in our Reader Question series is an actual user submitted question. To maintain the integrity of the original question, we do not edit or change reader questions in any way.
Q: Can the Equifax report be printed? About how many pages will it be? I have an ink jet printer and am worried [...]
