Identity Theft Protection is Important

Identity theft protection is a very important type of protection that everyone should have. Fighting against identity theft can help you to make sure you do not suffer unnecessary financial difficulties. Making sure your identity is not stolen can also help you to protect your health.

Identity Theft Protection is Important To Your Health

If someone takes your identity, that dishonest identity thief could use your personal information to obtain medical services without having to pay for them or by having your insurance company pay for the services. The medical help that this other person receives, and the conditions that this identity thief has, could end up being recorded in your medical records. This could affect medical treatment that you receive if you go to the doctor or to the hospital. In some cases, this could even jeopardize your very life.

Identity Theft Protection Is Important to Your Finances

While you are not responsible for charges that someone makes on your credit cards or in your name, you need to alert creditors to the unauthorized use of your information in order to avoid the creditors trying to collect from you.  When someone misuses your information to take on debt or borrow money and you don’t pay, the non-payment and the debt can be recorded on your credit report and drag your credit score down. This can result in a situation where you have a bad credit score, which can make it hard for you to get approved for a loan and which can make it more costly for you to borrow money. While you can clean your credit report, it can be really time consuming to do this and you could easily lose a house or car that you wanted to buy in the meantime as you spend days, weeks or months trying to restore your good credit.

Get Identity Theft Protection Today

Identity theft protection is important for people of all ages, as even children's identities have been misused.  You shouldn’t hesitate to sign up for identity theft protection so you won’t have to worry as much about a thief getting hold of your personal information and misusing it.

Services like IDENTITY GUARD® can provide important help in protecting your identity.  Sign up for identity theft protection today with a service that is designed specifically to assist in the fight against identity theft.

Learning How to Get a Credit Report

Knowing how to get a credit report is important because you want to check your record regularly.  By checking your credit report regularly, you can see if there is any inaccurate information that might be dragging down your credit score. You can also see if someone has stolen your identity and opened a new card without you being aware of it. Finally, you can check your debt repayment progress and get a full overview of your debts.  All of these are major reasons to check your credit report and score regularly, but you need to know the right steps to take to get your report.

How to Get a Credit Report

One of the best ways to get a credit report is to sign up for a service that provides one to you regularly.  This includes services such as IDENTITY GUARD® Platinum, which provides you with access to credit reports from the major credit reporting bureaus in the United States.  Using a service to help you to obtain a credit report makes the process easy and simple and ensures that you can regularly check your credit. It is important to check your credit on a regular basis since information on your report and from your creditors is updated monthly.

The Steps to Take to Get a Credit Report

When you sign up for a service to obtain a credit report, you will need to provide some basic information in order to be able to access your report. This includes providing your name, address and social security number. You may need to answer identifying questions about information contained on your credit report dealing with past loans or past addresses in order to verify that you are the person you say you are. This is done to protect access to your credit report so your sensitive information does not accidentally fall into the wrong hands.

Get Your Credit Report Today

Obtaining your credit report is easy from a service like IDENTITY GUARD® Platinum. Now that you know how to get a credit report, order your report today so you can start monitoring your debt and be informed of the information about you being shared with lenders.

Key Reasons ID Theft Protection is Needed

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.

Child ID Theft Protection: A Practical Gift

As a parent, grandparent, or guardian of a child, you want to do everything possible to help the child in your life have a bright future. This means preparing your child for everything that life could throw at him or her. In today’s world, this includes preparing your child for financial setbacks and doing everything possible to help your child have a bright financial future and financial success. You don’t want anything to derail this, especially before your child has a chance to begin making money decisions. As such, you need to take steps to fight against child ID theft.

Fighting Child ID Theft

Child ID theft has become a major source of concern. Many identity thieves are turning to children because they make easy victims. Kids may not be very careful with their personal information because they don’t understand the risk of identity theft. Even cautious parents who are diligent about keeping their own personal information private may not be aware that child ID theft is also an issue and, thus, may not be as careful with their children’s private data as they should. The worst issue, however, is that kids don’t use credit regularly, don’t apply for mortgages and car loans, and may not even be aware that they have credit reports. As such, an identity thief may have a long time in which he goes undetected and is free to steal and use a child’s personal information before he is discovered and stopped.

With child ID theft protection, however, you and your child are given important tools that will assist you in fighting any identity theft before it becomes a major problem to solve. With IDENTITY GUARD® identity theft protection, it is possible to regularly monitor a child’s credit information and to receive alerts triggered by certain suspicious or out-of-the-ordinary events. You can also take advantage of programs that are specifically targeted towards helping to prevent child ID theft, such as kID Sure^SM, if you would prefer a program specifically targeted towards helping to fight child ID theft.

Why Opt for Child Identity Theft Protection

A child’s credit score is going to have a major impact on that child’s life. Many students need loans in order to pay for college, so they will need to have their credit in good shape in order to get these important student loans. You don’t want to later discover – when that freshman year arrives – that there is a delay or that the loans aren’t available as a result of an identity theft situation. Further, you don’t want your child to start his or her life dealing with black marks on a credit record because of identity theft.

Correcting mistakes and errors on a credit report that exist because of identity theft takes time, and the longer the identity theft goes on undiscovered, the stickier and more complicated the situation becomes. Don’t let your child be saddled with a financial mess as one of his first experiences in the financial world. Instead, take advantage of child id theft protection through http://www.identityguard.com/ or kID Sure^SM in order to give your child a practical and lasting gift.

Paying off Debt? Credit Monitoring is Key

Credit monitoring is an important service for anyone who cares about his or her finances and who wants to have a handle on whether he is creditworthy enough to get favorable loan rates. However, if you have recently paid off debt or are in the process of paying off debt, credit monitoring becomes especially important.

How Does Credit Monitoring Help in Debt Payoffs

If you are paying off credit card, personal loan, or other consumer debt, using a credit monitoring service is a smart choice. Credit monitoring services through http://www.identityguard.com/ silver, gold, or platinum will all provide you with relevant and timely information about your credit situation, while targeted programs through CreditProtectX3® or CreditProtect® will all help you to keep up to date about what is going on with your credit information.

Using one of these services can be very helpful when paying off debt for many reasons including the following:

• You can track the impact that your debt payoff is having on your credit score. 30 percent of your credit score is determined based on the amount of available credit you are actually using. This is called your “credit utilization” rate. The less of your credit you use, the higher your credit score will go since using less shows that you have a good handle on your debt and that you aren’t in debt trouble. Essentially, this means that as you pay off debt and you lower your utilization, you can see your score going up. That’s an exciting feeling.
• You can see on a regular basis that your payments are being applied and your debt totals are going down. A credit report gives you all of your credit information in one convenient place. This means you can get an overall idea of your debt picture. As you reduce the debt owed, you’ll see on your credit report that your remaining balances grow smaller and smaller. This will help to keep you motivated and keep you on track as you work to repay the debts that you owe.
• You can make sure your hard work isn’t undermined. When you are paying off debt it can sometimes be a struggle, but it is worth it to try to get and stay debt-free or to get rid of toxic debt at high interest rates. However, you don’t want to end up having all your hard work impacted by someone stealing your identity and getting credit in your name that doesn’t get paid. Although you can remove accounts from your credit report that were put there as a result of identity theft, this can take a long time and you need to actually take action to have the accounts removed (which means you need to know the accounts are there). Credit monitoring through IDENTITY GUARD®, CreditProtectX3®, or CreditProtect® helps you to know when something is amiss sooner than you otherwise would, so you can take the right action.

For all of these reasons, it just makes sense to use a credit monitoring service during your journey to repay your debts.

Understanding Your Credit Report

Checking your credit report regularly is a very wise choice. In fact, many people choose to sign up for a service such as http://www.identityguard.com/, CreditProtectX3®, or CreditProtect® so they will have the tools that allow them to keep up to date about the information on their credit and debt. By keeping tabs on what is going on, you not only have the best chance of fighting identity theft, but you also have the ability to see how your behaviors and actions with debt and spending affect your creditworthiness. These aren’t the only benefits of checking your credit report regularly either; there are many, all of which relate to ensuring good financial fitness.

However, in order to enjoy and make the most of all of the benefits of monitoring your credit report, you will need to understand your credit report. Here are a few times to help.

Understanding the Information on Your Credit Report

The information on your credit report is compiled by various agencies that assemble details on your debt and then use that information to give you a score on how creditworthy you are. Banks and lenders use the score and the information on your credit report in order to determine if you are a good lending risk or a bad one. If there is too much negative information or your score is too low, they won’t lend to you at all. If you have some negatives, you may have a low score but will still be creditworthy enough for banks to lend to. In this case, you’ll just pay a higher interest rate than someone with a good credit score.

The information on your credit report, therefore, consists of all of the details needed to determine what credit score to assign to you. The credit report also consists of details that banks and lenders might be interested in when assessing whether lending to you is a risk. This information includes the following:

• The names of all open accounts, the balances due, the length of time you have had the card, the minimum monthly payments, and your payment history (i.e. whether you’ve ever been 30, 60, or 90 days late or whether a creditor has ever had to discharged or “charge off” debt since you didn’t pay it back).
• Information about public records or judgments against you.
• Information regarding the number of new “inquiries” on your credit report. An inquiry is a request by a creditor to see your report because you’ve applied for new credit. “Soft” inquiries (those you initiate yourself when you want to check your credit and those that are done by companies for marketing or identity verification purposes) do not show up on your report, only queries that creditors conduct when you request new credit are listed. As such, this category shows lenders how much new debt you are taking on.

It is important to regularly monitor all of this information on your credit report by using a service such as IDENTITY GUARD®, CreditProtectX3®, or CreditProtect®. With these services, you get regular access to the details on your credit report so you can check for mistakes in your information, see if you have a good mix of debt, track your balances and inquiries, and otherwise make smart choices to protect a vital asset: your credit score.

Identity Protection Steps to Take

Identity protection is not something that should be a concern only for small portions of the population who are careless with their credit information. Everyone should be concerned with securing their personal information so they do not fall victim to identity theft. In an information-centric economy with new digital devices being developed every day, it has become even more important than ever for every single person to make smart choices and take responsibility for protecting themselves.

Identity Protection Steps

In order to ensure that you’ve done everything possible to secure your identity, be sure you have taken these identity protection steps:

1. Shred mail and documents with personal identifying information. Whether you have old tax returns, statements from your insurance or mortgage company, credit card solicitations, or anything else with your personal details on it, shredding it is the only smart choice. Anyone can get ahold of mail or papers that are thrown away and can use that information to steal your identity.
2. Be cautious about sharing your personal details, especially your Social Security Number. There are a whole host of tactics used by identity thieves to try to get ahold of information they should not have. Always be wary, and don’t fall victim to the traps set by skilled criminals. If someone calls claiming to be from your bank and trying to “verify” your information, tell them you’ll hang up and call them back (and then use the number you know for your bank). Don’t click on links in e-mails that lead you to sites where your personal info is entered (again, go directly to the site you know), and be cautious that not everything is always as it seems.
3. Watch your data on public networks and unsecured connections. If you have an open WiFi connection in your home or if you are on a public computer or Internet in a public place like a coffee shop, be very careful about entering any personal account details or information. Unsecured networks are, by definition, not secure. Someone with a little know-how could easily access your data.
4. Use passwords that are difficult to guess. If you use your name, your kids’ names, or your birthday as your password or your PIN, it can be easy for people to breach the “security” that a password is supposed to provide. After all, it isn’t very hard to find out someone’s birthday, especially in the age of Facebook and social networking.
5. Take advantage of identity protection services. With a service such as http://www.identityguard.com, you can keep regular tabs on what is going on with your credit report and your personal information. You can even receive updates if certain triggering suspicious events occur. Services like http://www.identityguard.com/ arm you with tools that may help you to fight identity theft more effectively.

If you follow these steps, you can significantly increase the chances that your personal information will remain as it should –personal. Don’t wait for identity theft to happen; take the proper steps for identity protection today by securing your information and getting in touch with IDENTITY GUARD® to start your service.