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Alerts: Credit monitoring

Overview

Credit monitoring keeps an eye on your credit reports and credit-related accounts to help determine if someone is using your identity fraudulently. While we can’t prevent fraud, we can and do alert you as soon as we detect it, then remediate the fraud and restore your identity. 

When to expect a credit alert

The timing varies because credit reports aren’t updated in real time. Since different creditors, including credit card companies and loan providers, follow different reporting timelines, it’s difficult to predict exactly when an update will appear.

Most lenders report to the credit bureaus once per month, though that can vary. Some businesses report more frequently, while others report every 30, 60, or 90 days. Once the credit bureaus roll out updates, the information is sent to credit monitoring services. If you’ve opted in for credit alerts, we’ll then alert you about changes to your report.

If you receive an alert several weeks after you made the activity, you may wrongly interpret it as fraudulent. Because of this, it’s important to carefully review all of the details in a credit alert.

What to do if you receive a credit alert

If you receive a credit alert:

  1. Log in to your account
  2. Click on the alert in your dashboard
  3. Carefully review all of the details
  4. Let us know if you recognize the activity or not by selecting “Yes” or “No”

If you don’t recognize the credit activity

If you don’t recognize the credit activity, select “No.” This will tell us that we may need to investigate further. You’re also welcome to give us a call to go over the alert or report suspicious activity. To find the best phone number to call, log in to your account and scroll to the bottom of the page. The phone number you see is customized for your plan so you can get the help you need faster. If you’ve reported suspicious activity in an alert, you can expect a call from us within 24-48 hours.

Other things to consider

Keep in mind that the credit issuer’s name might appear different — or abbreviated — on your alerts. 

If you have tri-bureau credit monitoring, you may receive multiple credit alerts for the same transaction. Terminology can vary across agencies, too, so the alerts reported from one bureau may differ from another.

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