Continued from Part 1 of Avoiding Identity Theft By Monitoring Your Credit Report…

An obvious way of avoiding identity theft is through keeping track of what appears on your credit report. Regular reviews of your report should reveal with whom you have any open accounts and probably more importantly any recent review of your credit as part of either an offer of credit or grant of credit to you.

• Monitor your credit reports quarterly: This may add to your admin but previous recommendations to do an annual review are probably outdated in the light of identity theft instances increasing. Time missed is time lost and possibly further damage done if you have become a victim of ID theft. Expect to pay out $5-$15 per copy for each of the three quarterly credit reports, it will still be worth it if it can prevent the type of chaos, damage and havoc an identity thieves can wreak so easily on your life.

• Check for suspicious activity: Your ordinary credit report lists information about financial activity, that includes information on accounts you hold and creditors that have extended you credit. When reviewing your credit report, inspect it closely by looking for credit inquiries that may have come from companies you have no business with, any accounts you haven’t personally opened, and any unauthorized activity on your existing accounts.

3 Ways To For Avoiding Identity Theft by Monitoring Your Credit Reports…

1) Good Solution: Call the credit reporting agencies (Experian, Equifax, TransUnion) to order your credit reports so you can make sure there is no unusual activity.

2) Better Solution: My experience is that calling all the credit reporting companies is far too time consuming and inefficient. Instead, you can deal with one source that gives you reports from ALL the credit reporting companies.

3) Best Solution: The most efficient and secure way to protect your identity is to deal with one company that offers a specialized identity theft protection service that carefully monitors all your credit reports and will instantly alert you of any unusual activity.

In the beginning, until you get into the routine, it may seem an inconvenience to monitor your credit report. It is worthwhile making a note on your calendar to remind you to do it so that you can set some time aside to review the entries in the quarterly report. It is worth the effort. Avoiding identity theft means being aware of unauthorized activity early enough, it can make a considerable difference between inconvenience and devastation from identity theft.