Credit Monitoring

If you want to keep a close eye on your credit there are some great services out there.

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission says it takes 12 months, on average, for a victim of identity theft to notice the crime. A credit monitoring service will alert you, usually daily or weekly, to changes in your credit - helping you to stop the theft before it gets out of control.

According to the Federal Trade Commission, nearly 10 million Americans fell victim to identity theft last year, at an average cost of $5,000 per victim. But two-thirds of victims who discovered the misuse of their personal information within five months incurred no out-of-pocket expenses. That's what a credit monitoring service can do for you - it can't prevent identity theft but it can greatly reduce its impact.

For a free annual credit report please visit www.annualcreditreport.com.

For a credit report along with your credit scores, please visit www.myfico.com.