Hond Financial

Posts Tagged ‘identty theft’

ID fraud is one of the fastest growing problem in the U.S today. Every 4 seconds someone’s identity is stolen.There are now several id theft protection services on the market to address this problem. Identity thieves will retrieve your mail or trash, looking for bank and credit card statements, pre-approved credit offers, and tax information. ID thieves may steal personal information from your wallet or purse such as identification cards, credit cards, or bank cards. Fill out change-of-address forms to redirect your mail. Acquire personal information you share on unsecured websites. Buy your personal information from an inside source such as a store employee who obtains your personal information from a credit application or by skimming your credit card information when you make a purchase. Someone at your place of employment may sell your personnel records. Considering how identity thieves steal and use your personal information and how difficult it is to stop it, many individuals are turning to identity theft prevention services to obtain better pro-active protection from ID theft,  keeping your identities safe from criminals. These services will monitor and alert you of any unusual activity.

The question now becomes which id theft provider is right for you. How do you easily compare the features of each one? That’s where a site with a comparison chart becomes handy. In addition to services that specialize in identity theft prevention, you might also want to consider a credit report monitoring service to provide you another layer of protection that many identity theft prevention services don’t always provide. Many of these credit monitoring services offer a free trial where you’re able to receive your  free online credit reports.

There’s credit reportoffers where you can see your information from one credit bureau. Other services let’s you to see your credit report from all 3 credit bureaus. Trans Union, Equifax, and Experian. This is crucial because the information contained in one credit bureau file may not match with what’s on the others. Also, many lenders may choose to see one or more of your free 3 credit report. And most services do not provide a free FICO score for free. You only get to view what’s on your normal credit reports. But a FICO score is not the same as your regular credit report or score. It uses different set of algorithms for coming up with your FICO report. Most lenders utilize the FICO report to judge your creditworthiness. Therefore it may be  most wiseto view your FICO score before applying for a auto loan. Another feature that these offers provide is credit monitoring. With some services you only get the bare minimum while others provide proactive identity theft monitoring prevention. These are some of the reasons why it makes sense to make comparisons between the features of these  free credit reports online offers.