Credit monitoring services give consumers a number of tools to keep track of what's on your credit report, while protecting your credit information and other personal information. Credit monitoring services notify you by email or mobile text message whenever a change to your credit report is detected. You can spot ID fraud and credit fraud faster and minimize the potential damage to your credit history and credit score.

You can expect notifications when your address has been changed, a new account has been opened or when your account has any other change. This is helpful so you can act upon any false information in a timely manner. This protects you from someone trying to use your identity to receive financing. Without credit monitoring services, you could miss this for several months!

Your credit score also affects the interest rate that lenders will offer you. You want to have as strong a credit score at all times, so any little change that could hurt your score needs immediate attention.

Most credit monitoring service providers also offer insurance programs to protect you against identity theft. You may receive reimbursement up to a given dollar amount if someone, for example, stole the numbers from your credit cards and racked them all up in a short period of time. (New York State residents - this does not apply). This can cover:

* Lost wages for work missed to clear up the fraud
* Repayment of notary or certified mail costs for the delivery of affidavits
* Long distance phone costs in conjunction with the fraud
* Attorney fees incurred for dealing with the fraud

Who's a good credit monitoring service? TrueCredit, Identity Guard and Citi Credit Monitoring are all reputable agencies.

You may also want to view results for all credit bureaus, in that case Equifax may be the credit monitoring service for you as it has access to all 3 major credit bureaus.