Understanding What an Identity Monitor Is

An identity monitor is a service entrusted with helping to monitor how your personal information is being used. Your name, your address and your social security number can all be used to obtain credit or to obtain services. For example, someone could apply for a credit card in your name or try to obtain medical services under your insurance.   An identity monitor helps you to identify when this has happened more quickly, so you can take fast action to protect your identity.

What Is an Identity Monitor?

An identity monitor is generally a subscription service that you sign up for, such as IDENTITY GUARD®.  The service can allow you to regularly view your credit report so you can see if there are any accounts on there that you were not expecting and that may have been opened without your knowledge or permission. The service can also monitor your credit report and information for certain red flags that may suggest you have been the victim of identity theft. By keeping tabs on how your personal data is being used, your identity monitor should be able to help you out in working to prevent identity theft.

How Does an Identity Monitor Help You?

An identity monitor can provide you with certain information about how your identifying information is being used. This is information that you might not know right away.  If someone has opened a credit card in your name and you were not regularly checking your credit, you might not find out for a long time that this occurred.  You could end up having months of late payments recorded for the card that you weren’t aware of, and you could also end up with the identity thief maxing out the card and going over the limit. You could even get a judgment against you.

All of this could do serious damage to your credit score, especially if the identity thief opens multiple credit cards and does this multiple times. While you can get the negative information taken off, it is very time consuming, especially if the identity thief misuses your information for a long time.  An identity monitor helps you to find out that your information is being misused before there is a lot of damage to undo.

Signing Up For an Identity Monitor Service

To get started on protecting your identity, sign up for an identity monitor service today.

Key Reasons ID Theft Protection is Necessary

ID theft protection is something that almost everyone needs. Having identity theft protection is important to protect your finances and to avoid spending hours dealing with a criminal act committed against you. There are many reasons why you need protection from having your identity stolen, and once you consider the important advantages, it will be easy to see how valuable this type of protection is.

ID Theft Protection Helps You to Avoid Credit Denials

One of the biggest reasons you need ID theft protection is to make sure you do not get denied the ability to borrow money based on someone stealing your identity and misusing it to take on credit in your name. When you buy a house or a car, you may have a limited period of time to get your credit approved and make your purchase before the car is sold to someone else or your contract to buy the house expires. The last thing you want is to be derailed from a big purchase because your identity was stolen and you were not able to fix the problem in time.

ID Theft Protection Helps Protect Your Credit Score

Your credit score is one of your most important financial metrics, and a bad credit score could not only result in a denial of credit, but could also make it much more expensive for you to actually be able to borrow money. If your identity is stolen and your credit score suffers, you could end up getting a mortgage, car loan or credit card at a very high rate (if you get one at all). If you don’t realize what happened and just accept the higher rate, you could end up paying hundreds of thousands of dollars more over your lifetime.

ID Theft Protection Can Help Catch Identity Thieves Quicker

When your identity is stolen, you can take steps to get the negative information removed from your credit report and to fix the damage that was done to your credit. However, it can take a lot of time as you deal with police reports, contacting each of the creditors and contacting the credit bureaus. If you are able to catch identity thieves sooner because you check your credit reports or are alerted to a problem, then you can avoid spending tons of time dealing with the theft of your identity.

Services such as IDENTITY GUARD® help to empower you in the fight against identity theft. Learn more about ID theft protection services today.

Identity Theft Prevention Information

Everyone needs to be mindful of some fundamental identity theft prevention tips and techniques due to the serious consequences of getting personal identifying information stolen. Your finances can be adversely affected by identity theft and, the truth is, getting your identity stolen can affect many different areas of your life. This is why it is so important to understand how to protect yourself from having your ID stolen both when you are on the Internet and when you’re offline, as you are always at a potential risk of ID theft if you aren’t sensibly cautious.

Online Identity Theft Prevention Tips

Protecting your identity online means being mindful of dishonest people who want to get their hands on your personal data. For example, identity thieves might try to use emails, unsecured networks or even fake websites to get your data. To protect yourself, only share personal details on sites that are denoted as secure (you’ll see an “S” in the HTTPS website address and you’ll see a little lock at the base of the window on a secured site). Don’t hand out identifying data or info via email and be cautious about what you share on unsecured networks.

Identity Theft Prevention Offline

There are several real-world risks for having your identity stolen as well as dangers on the Internet.  For example, dishonest people can even look through old mail in order to get your personal data. Opting out of credit card marketing material along with other promotional mailers that contain personal details on them is one good way to fight against this kind of identity theft. You can also shred any mail or documents with personal information in them before throwing those documents out.

Other Identity Theft Prevention Options

Another strategy in the fight against identity theft is to work with an ID theft prevention service. IDENTITY GUARD®, for example, enables you to be alerted quickly if certain triggering events occur that suggest your data might be getting misused. Then you can check into what’s going on and act fast to resolve the problem if someone has stolen your information and begun to misuse it for dishonest reasons. Responding quickly makes it much easier for you to address the misuse of your data. For example, instead of having 20 credit cards opened by an identity thief that you need to cancel and get removed from your credit report, you might find out that someone has stolen your identity after they’ve just begun to misuse your information. This means a lot less headache for you, thanks to this strategy of identity theft prevention. To get your coverage going now, sign up at www.identityguard.com.