I currently use 2 different companies, True Credit and My Fico to monitor my credit. There seems to be a ton of these sites out there now, what are you using?

I've used MyFico in the past, but a quick call to my credit union and they tell me my fico too.

I actually logged onto free creditreport.com years ago and stuck w/ it. For 14.95/mo I get notifications sent to my e-mail about everything. The only BS is..it's not free as the name says.

Why are you using any third party company to monitor your credit? You shouldn't be doing that.

What you should be doing is putting a freeze on anyone looking at your credit report. The less people who have access to your information, the better. That includes all these places starting up claiming to protect you with "fraud alerts".

There is something wrong when there are too many organizations claiming to protect your credit and all you have to do is give them all your information. How do you know who these people are and what they are doing with your information? The answer is you don't. Don't get involved with any of them. These fraud alerts are bullshit.

If you are concerned about fraud, freeze your credit file. That is your best guarantee of anything.

With a freeze, no one can look at your credit report without you first giving permission with a PIN supplied by the three major credit reporting agencies.

With a freeze no one can ever access your file and therefore no one can ever steal your identity to obtain credit.

There is a small cost involved, but it is worth it. It might even be free in a few states. The only time you ever want your credit report looked at is when you yourself apply for a loan, insurance, or a new credit card, etc. How often is that?

Without the freeze, everyone and his brother has access to your credit files. Even with the fraud alerts. You don't want that. You only want your credit file looked at when there is a reason for it and the only reason for it is when you apply for something.

It's worth the cost.

Contact all three credit reporting agencies....

http://www.experian.com/consumer/security_freeze.html

http://www.transunion.com/corporate/personal/fraudIdentityTheft/preventing/securityFreeze.page

http://www.equifax.com/cs/Satellite?c=EFX_ContentRoot&cid=1165203975981&pagename=5-1%2F5-1_Layout

Nice info Madman, I wasn't aware you could do that. I just checked the first link and in AZ it's a $10 charge to place the freeze, then it's a $10 charge to unblock it in the event I need to apply for credit.

Total Bullshit that I should have to pay to put a freeze on someone from viewing my credit. These huge credit companies have to much power over what we do. I'm lucky - my credit in the UK sucked, I got a credit card way to young, but then I moved to the US and got a clean slate and have awesome credit here now. But it's way to easy for that to get fucked up by someone stealing my identity and if it did - it can take years to rebuild.

Actually FreeCreditReport.com is owned by Experian, its not a 3rd party, it IS the party.

I dont want to freeze my credit, you do that if you have been involved in a fraud or such, not day to day. MyFico will send notices every time your credit burbs which is what I want.

What I really want is access to all 3 reports, up to date and my current scores.

We've been considering LifeLock . Haven't made up my mind though. Our agency gets plenty of calls on identity theft though and as tough as it is to straighten out, this is tempting. I respect the fact that they say up front exactly what they do and point out that you could do it yourself for free (click "How LifeLock Works" on their homepage).

I heard the owner of Lifelock had his ID stolen by his own kid! Might just be an urban myth tho as I can't find the story on the net.

You freeze access to your credit files so you are never involved with an identity theft fraud.

Think of it as a preventative measure.

Why would you want anyone having access to your files unless you specifically allow it?

Identity theft reminds me of terrorism. It doesn't affect very many people directly, but everybody is scarred shitless of it.

Also, is this credit monitoring/lock stuff really necessary? I've never looked into much to be honest. Neither my wife nor I have ever had any credit issues, we're in our third house, we only have two credit cards, and our only debt is our mortgage. Should I still have to buy this crap?

That's up to you.

Are the odds of identity theft happening to any one particular individual low? Yeah. But if it ever does happen to you, the amount of work, frustration, and stress to get out from under it is big.

You'd be awfully surprised how fairly easily thieves can get your info. Organized crime loves it. You don't have to go out and get your hands dirty. Small time hoods can do it with some success if they are smart about it.

Madman, that is great advise. I have done just that up here and it works like a charm. Not many people know but too many hits on your Credit file will actually hurt you in the long run.

The risk of someone stealing your identity is VERY real. My wife's office (50 employees) were broken into 3 weeks ago, they have IMAC'S, Servers, Plasma TV's galore in that office, the only thing the robbers took were 50 files containing ALL employee information..a real value for lowlife who wants to fuck up your life.

Needless to say we sold them a system that encrypts all electronic files in 256 PKCSI format. anyone keeping paper trails, even in safes should be shot

I signed up with freecreditreport.com last summer when I was going through the divorce. It's been pretty darn useful for me, that's for sure. I've gotten to watch in "real time" my credit score dropping like a bungee jumper w/ no bungee, thanks to the ex's inability to pay her freaking car payment for 3 months, and a joint credit card account for 6 months... Woohooo!!! [enter sarcasm here]

But, the point is, I've been able to contest a few things successfully, so that's helped, and it's definately nice to be able to have evidence for court when you need it... Yeah, it's about $15 a month after the first month, and if you want all 3 company's reports, it's $40 a month, I think. The good thing, though, is you can get Experian's report at any time, as many times as you want in a month. Plus, their detailed report also lets you see what companies are being reported as checking your report, as well as what companies have checked it that don't get reported to others (anytime you check it yourself, it does NOT get reported to others, so you aren't lowering your score just by looking at it).

I'm pretty happy with it.

I got the freecreditreport.com $15 a month thing for free, because of a someone hacked into our Title Agencies computer system. I think that runs out soon tho.

anyone else use Lifelock?

There was a thread on here a few days ago about that guy...DO NOT USE LIFELOCK! Run a Google search about the company and the owner.

ETA: It was on another forum I frequent. WHY YOU SHOULDN\'T USE LIFE LOCK!!!

Wow - their office is like 5 miles from my house. Never knew they were based here in AZ.

Well, THAT helped make up my mind.

No LifeLock for us.

Well this is kinda topical now for me. So - when I sign up for any product warranties or basically anything I do, I use the company name @ a specific domain name I own as the email address.

In this case I just received an email from Lifelock.com using my bissell@ address, which was used to register the warranty for a Bissel vacuum cleaner purchased a few months ago.

Nice to know that Bissel shared my info with Lifelock!