Definition
Credit report monitoring is the act of continuously reviewing a credit report for changes.
Analysis
Credit bureaus offer credit report monitoring services for a fee. This fee can be substantial, amounting to $100 or more per year. Often times this service is charged monthly to a credit card, with limited access to credit reports included.
Many credit report monitoring services use the offer of a free credit report to gain the interest of consumers, who then learn that a subscription to the service is required in order to receive the free credit report. One such service (www.freecreditreport.com) did not provide the necessary disclosures to alert consumers that enrollment in TripleAdvantage was required, which was the credit monitoring service sold by Experian. Experian settled a lawsuit brought by the FTC that they did not adequately disclose fees for the service.
Consumers may monitor their own credit reports for free by pulling their own free credit reports each year through the Annual Credit Report Service established by Congress. Consumers may pull all 3 credit reports at once, or they may stagger the requests by 4 months. This can allow consumers to stay aware of credit activity without paying for an expensive credit report monitoring service.
