Credit Monitoring Services or Do-It-Yourself?

You may have noticed that there’s no shortage of companies that are simply desperate to monitor your credit. These services promise to keep an eye on your credit, give you regular updates, and alert you if something smells fishy. The catch is the price tag. The average yearly fee for a credit-monitoring service is $100. That’s at least $50 more than you’ll pay if you order your reports yourself. The other problem is that most services only check reports from one credit bureau, which isn’t enough. The only way you can get the whole story on your credit is to look at your report from all three bureaus. For $100, you should get better than 1 in 3 odds!

Is it ever a good idea to use a credit-monitoring service? Yes, if you’re already a victim of identity theft. In that case, it might help (and give you some peace of mind) to have someone else keeping track of your credit from month to month like clockwork, making sure no new thefts have occurred. But even in that case, check up on the credit-monitoring company to make sure it’s legit.