What To Know About Credit Monitoring From Credit Card Companies

Many credit card companies offer credit monitoring as a free benefit for cardholders, which can help you stay on top of your credit and get alerted to changes in your credit report. Credit monitoring tracks your credit reports and notifies you of changes, such as new accounts or updates to your credit score. These can offer alerts that something’s not right or reassure you that your credit improvement efforts are making a difference.

Let’s look into what credit monitoring is, how it differs from credit account monitoring, and what you can expect from your card issuer’s credit monitoring services. You can also learn about third-party credit monitoring services that may offer more robust features than your credit card does.

What Is Credit Monitoring?

Credit monitoring helps you track your credit reports and flags changes or activities that could indicate identity theft or fraud. With credit monitoring, you get alerts about new inquiries, credit score changes, and new accounts in your name. It’s primarily used to give you early warning signs of suspicious activity so you can take action to protect your credit report and financial health.

Services that offer credit monitoring monitor your credit with the 3 major credit bureaus — Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion — for specific activities.

Activities credit monitoring services check for include:

• New Credit Inquiries: Hard credit pulls, such as when you apply for a new credit card or loan, are recorded as credit inquiries. These can indicate potential fraud if you haven’t applied for a new account.
• New Accounts: Credit monitoring services alert you to new credit cards, loans, or other accounts opened in your name. You get alerts for accounts you’ve opened, but you can also get alerts for accounts you didn’t open, which allows you to take quick action if a thief is fraudulently opening accounts in your name.
• Missed Payments: Find out if any of your accounts are reported as delinquent. Generally, a payment isn’t reported as late on your credit report until you’ve missed a full billing cycle. This kind of alert can help you identify accounts you forgot to pay your bill for or those someone else opened in your name. On-time payments are key to maintaining a good credit score.
• Credit Limit Changes: Credit monitoring tells you about credit limit increases or decreases, which can significantly affect your credit score.

Credit monitoring services may also alert you to identity theft concerns, such as emails, passwords, or Social Security numbers exposed in data breaches or found on the dark web.

You may receive email, text message, or mobile app alerts, which can offer real-time insight into credit report changes. With alerts, you can quickly dispute errors or contact creditors to deal with fraudulent accounts or inaccurate credit reporting.

Credit monitoring is beneficial, as it offers protection against identity theft, can help you keep track of credit score changes, and monitors for new accounts and hard inquiries. While credit monitoring can’t prevent identity theft or fraudulent transactions, it can offer alerts to make it easy to stay on top of your financial health and take swift action against theft.

Credit monitoring is available from third-party companies, including all 3 major credit bureaus. Many credit card issuers also offer it as a free cardholder benefit.

Credit Monitoring vs. Credit Account Monitoring

Credit monitoring can provide information about your accounts, including alerts for missed payments or credit limit changes. Still, credit account monitoring is not the same, as it alerts you to account issues. Most credit card issuers offer fraud alerts and zero liability for unauthorized transactions, policies aided by account monitoring.

Credit account monitoring is specific to credit card accounts and offers real-time surveillance of your credit card transactions. It primarily detects fraudulent transactions, and you should receive fraud alerts for unusual spending patterns or transactions the issuer has declined due to suspected fraud.

Credit card issuers use credit account monitoring to safeguard your credit accounts, catch potentially fraudulent transactions as they happen, and minimize financial loss from unauthorized purchases. Whether it’s a small or large purchase, credit account monitoring can identify transactions that don’t fit your usual spending patterns and offer early detection to stop fraud before it escalates. For example, if you usually shop locally and spend small amounts, a large international transaction could signal trouble.

When you receive a fraud alert, you can confirm with the issuer whether you’re responsible for the purchase. If it wasn’t you, the issuer can decline the transaction and issue a new credit card to you. 

Here’s how credit account monitoring typically works:

• Transaction Monitoring: Your credit card issuer analyzes transactions against your spending history, checking new transactions against the location, amount, and type of merchant to confirm whether a transaction seems in line with your usual spending. Unusual transactions may be flagged for review.
• Alerts: If a transaction is flagged for review, it may be declined, and you should get a fraud alert through established communication methods such as text messages, email, or app notifications.
• Response: After getting a fraud alert, you can review the transaction to confirm its legitimacy. You can confirm with the issuer and complete the transaction or try again if it’s legitimate. If it’s not legitimate, the issuer can decline or reverse the transaction, freeze your account, and issue a new card.

Bottom Line:

Credit account monitoring isn’t the same as credit monitoring. Still, it’s a useful service for protecting your credit card accounts from fraud and taking early action to prevent financial losses if your accounts are compromised.

Credit Monitoring Services From Major Credit Card Issuers

Credit card issuers increasingly offer credit monitoring and account monitoring as cardholder benefits. These services can help you protect your credit and financial health with real-time alerts, monitoring, and tools for maintaining credit health. You can benefit from credit monitoring and account monitoring services as you build or maintain good credit and protect your accounts from fraud. 

With a credit monitoring service from a credit card issuer, you can expect regular updates on your credit scores, alerts for credit report changes such as new accounts or inquiries, and notifications about suspicious activity such as data breaches involving your personal information. Services vary between issuers, as some offer more comprehensive features than others.

Although we don’t recommend opening a credit card solely for a credit card issuer’s credit monitoring services, knowing which cards in your wallet may offer the best features for staying on top of your credit health is helpful. Some credit monitoring services are available whether you’re a cardholder or not. Let’s compare the credit monitoring services offered by major credit card issuers.

American Express MyCredit Guide

With American Express MyCredit Guide, you can access your detailed FICO credit score based on Experian data, see how specific factors impact your score, and see how your score history has changed over time. Using the tool, you can see how actions may affect your credit score. You can also use a score planner to set goals and get personalized recommendations for credit score improvement.

The American Express MyCredit Guide offers identity monitoring to alert you to compromised personal information. It checks for exposure of your telephone number, email address, and Social Security number. If you get an alert, you’ll be notified about the affected accounts, how your information was exposed, and recommendations for securing your information.

Bank of America FICO Score

Own a Bank of America credit card? You can enroll for free monthly FICO score access and see the factors affecting your score. You can compare your scores to national averages, track recent scores, and learn about strategies to improve or maintain your credit health.

Capital One CreditWise

Capital One CreditWise offers tools to monitor your credit health. You can access your credit score and look at the factors that influence your score. Using a simulator, you can see how financial decisions such as paying down a balance or increasing your credit limit can affect your credit score. 

CreditWise monitors and sends you alerts for changes to your credit report, including new inquiries and delinquent accounts. It also offers alerts for your personal information, including detection of your email address or Social Security number on the dark web.

Chase Credit Journey

Chase Credit Journey offers tools to check your credit score and see how it’s changed over time. You can create a plan to improve your score and get notifications if your personal information is used or stolen online. You get tips for improving your credit, see why your credit score goes up and down, and access tools and articles that can help you improve your financial health.

The identity monitoring features of Chase Credit Journey are among the best, offering alerts for information on the dark web, data breaches, identity verifications, and activity linked to your Social Security number. Chase Credit Journey offers a personal concierge to help you during an identity theft crisis. You also get up to $1 million in theft insurance to cover expenses such as lost wages if you’re a victim of identity theft.

Citi FICO Scores

Citi provides monthly access to your FICO score and monitors for unexpected changes. You can see up to 6 months of score history and get insight into the factors influencing your score. Although Citi’s credit score monitoring service doesn’t offer alerts for compromised information, you can get fraud alerts for your credit card accounts.

Discover Credit Scorecard

Discover’s Credit Scorecard provides free access to your FICO credit score with up to 12 months of history and the ability to see what affects your score. You can get identity alerts when a new inquiry or account is on your credit report. It also offers daily monitoring of dark websites and alerts you if your Social Security number is compromised.

U.S. Bank CreditView Dashboard

With U.S. Bank’s CreditView Dashboard, you can view your credit score for free and access your TransUnion credit report. With the Score Simulator, you can estimate what your score could be if you make changes. You can also set credit goals and get personalized recommendations for improving your credit score.

Wells Fargo Credit Close-Up

Wells Fargo’s Credit Close-Up provides free access to your FICO score and tips to help you maintain or improve your score. There’s also access to your Experian credit report and personalized credit monitoring alerts for events that may impact your credit score.

Credit Monitoring Services From Third-Party Services

Although major credit card issuers offer free credit monitoring services, third-party credit monitoring services are available, usually for a fee. These third-party services may offer more comprehensive coverage and additional features that aren’t included in credit card issuers’ free monitoring. 

For example, a third-party service may offer credit monitoring across all 3 credit bureaus, while your credit card may only monitor a single bureau. Paid services may also include identity theft insurance and identity restoration support, which can save you money if your identity is stolen and you experience financial losses or face time-intensive identity restoration tasks.

While credit monitoring services may be more comprehensive than the free service you can get from your credit card issuer, third-party services usually charge a fee. You have to decide whether the additional features are worth paying for.

If your credit card’s monitoring features aren’t enough, consider a paid service — especially if your card’s service doesn’t cover all 3 credit bureaus. However, these services might be redundant if your credit card tracks your score with insights and provides alerts for compromised information. 

A third-party service can also be beneficial if you need advanced identity theft protection, such as identity theft insurance and identity restoration support, which most credit card issuers don’t offer. These features can be helpful if you experience identity theft and need help unwinding the damage.

Equifax

Equifax Lock & Alert allows you to lock your Equifax credit report for protection against identity theft. You get an alert any time your Equifax credit report is locked or unlocked. However, this service is limited.

If you want alerts for credit report changes and identity theft protection, you need to purchase a paid Equifax Complete plan. Features include fraud alerts, credit report locks, identity restoration, and up to $500,000 in identity theft insurance.

Experian

Experian offers free credit monitoring with customized alerts for inquiries, accounts, and personal information changes. You can also track your FICO score and monitor your spending with changes to your credit utilization ratio. Experian lets you dispute information online and add positive payment history to your credit file with Experian Boost. The service offers free dark web and personal privacy scans, and you can freeze your credit file.

Paid identity protection plans with Experian include advanced identity theft monitoring, monthly privacy scans and services to remove personal information, and monitoring and alerts for all 3 credit bureaus — not just Experian.

TransUnion

TransUnion lets you freeze your credit for free, and you can access your TransUnion credit report for free as often as every week by visiting annualcreditreport.com. You must pay a monthly fee if you’d like credit monitoring from TransUnion. With TransUnion’s paid credit monitoring service, you can get your report and score refreshed daily, see how your credit score performs over time, and get alerts to credit report changes with all 3 credit bureaus. It also offers specific credit health recommendations and $1 million in identity theft insurance.

TransUnion also offers IdentityForce, which has alerts for the dark web, credit monitoring, and reports for all 3 credit bureaus. It provides a personalized action plan for identity protection and dedicated restoration specialists with up to $2 million in identity theft insurance.

myFICO

myFICO offers Fico Free, which provides access to your Equifax credit score and credit report. You also get credit monitoring with alerts for changes in your Equifax credit report, including new inquiries and changes to your credit score.

You can get Advanced or Premier plans for a fee, which includes scores for mortgages and auto loans, $1 million identity theft insurance, and identity restoration.

LifeLock

LifeLock’s standard plan monitors your credit on 1 credit bureau and has dark web, identity, and Social Security number monitoring. You get data breach notifications, utility account creation monitoring, ID verification monitoring, and U.S. Postal Service address change verifications. It has personal restoration specialists, and users get up to $25,000 in stolen funds reimbursement, $25,000 in personal expense reimbursement, and $1 million in coverage for lawyers and experts.

Credit Karma

Credit Karma has free credit monitoring that notifies you of changes on your TransUnion and Equifax credit reports. You get notifications for suspicious or fraudulent activity, including hard inquiries or new accounts you’re not responsible for. Credit Karma users also get free credit reports and credit scores from Equifax and TransUnion.

How To Make the Most of Credit Monitoring Services

Credit monitoring services are most helpful for identity theft prevention and credit score improvement. Let’s look at some examples of how you could use a credit monitoring service.

Identity Theft

With alerts that include new credit accounts and hard inquiries, a credit monitoring service might warn you early about identity theft. Let’s say you get an alert from your credit monitoring service about a new credit inquiry from a bank you don’t recognize. You can contact the bank to report the fraudulent inquiry and stop the new account from opening. Then, you can follow up by freezing your credit reports and placing a fraud alert with the major credit bureaus. That can prevent further unauthorized credit applications. With prompt action, you can minimize the damage of identity theft to your credit.

Credit Score Improvement

Credit monitoring doesn’t just show you fraud but actions you’re taking that influence your credit score. If you’re working on improving your credit score, you can use credit monitoring tools to see how you’re progressing with your credit goals. Credit monitoring tools can show you how you’re using credit, help you understand the factors that influence your credit score, and help you use tools to make an improvement plan. Over time, these tools can help you achieve a higher credit score.

Use these tips to maximize the benefits of credit monitoring services, whether you’re using a free cardholder benefit or a paid service:

• Regularly Review Credit Reports and Alerts: Credit monitoring services alert you to changes, but you should investigate what those changes mean for your financial health. You might get a notification of a new hard credit inquiry, but if you know it was you who applied for a new credit card, there’s no reason for concern. On the other hand, if you’re alerted to a new account that you didn’t open, you need to take prompt corrective action. Also, investigate sudden changes in your credit score to understand what’s happening with your credit health.
• Set up Custom Alerts: Credit monitoring services vary in features but typically offer alerts for credit report changes. Some may allow you to customize alerts based on your preferences. For example, you might not be concerned about credit limit changes but want to know about hard inquiries and new accounts. Depending on the service, you may be able to get alerts for large purchases or foreign transactions.
• Pair Monitoring With Budgeting Apps: You can combine the insights from credit monitoring services with budgeting apps to better understand your overall financial health. For example, a credit monitoring service might alert you to increased credit utilization. You can then check your budgeting app to adjust your spending and ensure you stay on track with your spending goals.
• Use Account Alerts: Credit card issuers may offer credit monitoring services, but you can also sign up for account alerts, which can help you keep track of the transactions on your account. You can monitor spending patterns such as small purchases that add up over time, subscriptions you’re not using, or large purchases you didn’t authorize.
• Improve Your Credit Score: A credit monitoring service can alert you to fraud and help improve your credit score. Many services offer insights into the factors that affect your credit score and may offer tools such as credit score simulators that explore how financial moves could improve or worsen your credit score.

What To Do After Receiving a Credit Monitoring Alert

When you receive a credit monitoring alert, acting quickly can protect your financial health. Here’s what to do after you get common credit monitoring alerts:

• New Credit Inquiry Alert: Review the inquiry and check whether you’ve recently applied for credit, such as a loan, credit card, or rental application. No action is needed if the inquiry is legitimate. If it’s unauthorized, contact the financial institution that performed the inquiry to report it as fraudulent and place a freeze fraud alert on your credit reports with all 3 major credit bureaus.
• New Account Alert: Confirm whether you opened the new account. There’s no concern if you opened the account, but if you didn’t open it, you should immediately contact the issuer or creditor to close it. Follow up by placing a fraud alert and credit freeze on your credit reports.
• Missed Payment Alert: Verify whether you’ve missed a payment on the account indicated. If you did miss it, make your payment as soon as possible to minimize damage. Contact the creditor to update your account and report if there is an error. If you don’t recognize the account, treat it as potential fraud and contact the issuer to close it, following up with a fraud alert and credit freeze on your credit reports.
• Credit Score Change Alert: Find out what caused the change to your credit score, such as credit utilization changes, recent inquiries, or new accounts. Identify any discrepancies or unauthorized activities that could affect your credit score and dispute any errors on your credit reports.
• Credit Limit Change Alert: Credit card issuers may routinely review your account for potential credit limit increases, so you may receive an increase whether you ask for it or not. Either way, it’s a good idea to ensure it checks out. Verify whether you requested a credit limit change and look for communication from your credit card issuer explaining the increase or decrease in your credit limit. 

Final Thoughts

Protecting your financial health is crucial, and credit monitoring services can help you do that. While there are paid and free third-party credit monitoring services, major credit card issuers typically offer credit monitoring as a cardholder benefit. You can get a handle on your overall credit profile, track changes to your credit report, and flag identity theft and updates that can affect your creditworthiness. Look at your cardholder benefits to make the most of the credit monitoring services available to you.