Credit score monitoring services are available online for a monthly fee. There are some advantages to having the service to keep a monitor on your credit score changes, but there are also some great disadvantages. Deciding whether you need one or not means you have to weigh the disadvantages against the advantages to come up with the best solution.
Disadvantages of a credit monitoring service:
Monthly Bill- You will be billed each month for the monthly access fee to the credit monitoring service. It is required that you set up automatic payments to the company before you will be able to get service. This is one of the biggest drawbacks of having a credit monitoring service. The total amount of the charge depends on exactly what you ordered and what the company itself charges. Each company has a different amount. If you can’t afford to have the credit monitoring service, be careful that you don’t get caught in this trap.
Spam- There is a high chance that if you join a credit score monitoring service, you will begin to receive spam in your email inbox. Whether the company you joined has shared your information with other companies or if spyware has gotten into your system, you will begin receiving requests for you to join other credit score monitoring systems in heavy volume. You may even be fooled into believing that an advertisement for one of those companies is the one that you joined. Be sure to write down all the information about the company you joined so you aren’t endlessly clicking on emails thinking that you need to go to the credit score monitoring site only to find out it was an ad.
Information- The information that you get on credit monitoring sites isn’t exactly what you think you are paying for. You don’t always get the credit report that you are looking for. The information can be sparse. It gives you enough to tell you how high your credit score is and whether it is good or bad. It even gives you information on how to raise your credit score. Information about what is good and bad on your credit report is available, but it isn’t always exact information. Be careful what you are signing up for when you join a credit score monitoring service.
Cancellation- If you decide that you no longer want to receive the credit score monitoring services, you need to cancel it in order to stop payments from coming out of your account each month. In order to do this, you usually have to call the company. You are connected to someone that will then try to talk you into purchasing more services rather than cancelling the one that you no longer want. It can be quite a hassle. In fact, the person you are talking to may ignore your request completely and tell you they have set you up for yet another service. Be careful of this trick and make sure they understand that you want the service cancelled or you will end up paying more out each month rather than nothing at all.
These are some of the disadvantages of credit score monitoring services. They provide a good service to many people, but there are drawbacks to everything in life. Weighing the advantages against the disadvantages of a credit score monitoring service will help you make the right decision for you and your family.