How to Protect Your Credit Score: Active Prevention of the Bad Guys

If you have read any of the other articles on this website or have seen the news, you know that it is very easy to steal someone's identity or credit cards. This fear of the unknown prevents many from using credit at all because they do not know what may or may not happen. You should be cognizant of these problems but do not let it affect how you live your financial life. If we lived in fear of everything that could happen, would we ever leave the house in the morning? Knowing and understanding this is important but there are certain steps you can take to make it as hard as possible to for the bad guys to get a hold of your identity. This article will give you three main pointers on protecting your credit score through active prevention of the bad guys.

The first pointer for active prevention of the bad guys is to sign up for identity protection. This is a key and does not cost a great deal of money. If you are single, it often costs you under ten dollars a month or if you have joint credit, you will pay about fifteen dollars a month. This particular product offers you the opportunity to check your credit report as often as you want to and does not have specific times you can do this. You can do this from the comfort of your home twenty four hours a day, seven days a week. There is fraud assistance of up to $25,000 if your identity is stolen. There is also recovery assistance and counseling offered by many companies. Think through for this product: you are giving yourself a chance to check your credit as often as you want to while providing a solid plan in case your identity is stolen.

The next step you can take is to put alerts on your credit report. Many people who have had their credit stolen have flagged their credit. This will often come in the form of an alert on the credit report stating that they should have their identity checked before continuing with any credit applications. This ensures that only the correct people are able to get credit and is more active prevention of the bad guys.

The final pointer for you is to check over all of your credit card statements thoroughly whenever you receive them. If you find charges that are not yours, you need to call your credit card company so that you can dispute this charge. Checking your statements as soon as you receive them is imperative because you can normally only dispute charges received within the last sixty days. If you put it down with the intention of looking at the statement later, this often does not happen. Life is busy and can get in the way of your finances if you are not careful.

These three points on your credit score and active prevention of the bad guys should show you that you do not have to be worried about what it is out there. The key is to be prepared and to have a game plan in place in case fraud ever happens to you.