Step 5: Commit To A Maintenance Plan

Step 5: Commit To A Maintenance Plan

Everything we do in life revolves around maintenance. We maintain our cars, our homes, and our yards. We maintain our teeth, our appliances, our investment portfolios, and our health. The same diligence should apply to maintaining your credit. To implement strong credit scores for life, you must initiate and adhere to a solid maintenance plan.
The following tips make it easy for you to start strong and stay strong and see your plan through from initial fixes to long-term maintenance that will help you achieve long-term financial health.

Join An Online Credit Watch Program

A credit watch program will give you continued access to your credit reports and scores, and will also notify you when there is any activity—normal or unusual—on your credit reports with all three credit bureaus. There are two reasons to sign up for a credit watch program:
When you set out on a take action plan, you need to commit to seeing it through. This is the most difficult part of the credit improvement process. But the not knowing and waiting part can be very unsettling. Many consumers either pay a fortune to pull their credit reports every 30-45 days or they mistakenly have their credit report pulled several times by lenders because they want to know exactly where they stand. Unfortunately, doing this causes hard inquiries, which can bring a consumer’s credit scores down by several points. By signing up for an online credit watch program you keep the cost to a minimum, you don’t hurt your scores, and you have access to your information all the time.
The second reason to sign up for a credit watch program is as follows: Most people are extremely busy, or they simply cannot stick with a plan. Think about it, if gyms actually had to provide services to everyone who signed up for membership, those services would be so delayed that most people would either complain and ask for their money back, or just go to a more elite club that is not oversold. The reality is that most people who sign up for membership, don’t go. It’s the same with credit. Everyone starts out with the best of intentions, but quickly become lackadaisical after the big points have been regained. However, credit management for life requires a commitment to credit maintenance.
If you are going to make the investment, here’s what you should look for in a program:

• Access to updated credit reports and credit scores for ALL three credit bureaus every 30 days.
• DAILY monitoring of your credit notifying you if someone tries to access your credit for any reason.
• Notification of any changes in your credit profile or score.
• Identity theft insurance.

The cost of a credit watch program can vary anywhere from $ 80 to $ 150 per year. Usually, most offer a trial period for 30 to 60 days for a minimal fee. If you are not happy with the service, be sure to cancel your membership before the trial period ends.
Order your credit reports from the three major bureaus directly every 6-12 months. In addition to joining a credit watch program, you should pull your credit reports from the three credit bureaus directly as follows:

• If you are active with their credit, you should check your data at the bureau level every 6 months.
• If you are not applying for credit and have not received any notifications of unusual activity on your credit watch account, then you should check your data at the bureau level once a year.

This is when you want to look for variations in personal identification and demographic information, accounts that don’t belong to you, check credit card limits, and open/close status. This is the time to give your credit a full check up.
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