CYID vs. Traditional Credit Monitoring

Traditional credit monitoring is the oldest identity protection service around. It is sold by the credit bureau (Equifax, Experian and TransUnion) and various resellers that notifies you of changes to your credit file. There are several variations of the service. Sometimes only all three credit files are monitored (better) and sometimes just one is monitored. Sometimes, the monitoring is done on a daily basis (better) and other times it is done less frequently. Traditional credit monitoring always costs money, although a free trial period is often used as an incentive to try it.

Disadvantages of Traditional Credit Monitoring

1. Traditional credit monitoring does not prevent identity theft or restore your identity after you become a victim. Like an alarm system that doesn’t communicate to the police on a house with no locks, it offers little protection other than to notify you once you’ve been victimized.
2. As the name implies, traditional credit monitoring reviews only your credit file for changes and does not catch most changes in banking, employment, medical, insurance or government records that may indicate identity theft. If you are worried that someone may use your name to open bank accounts, seek employment, obtain medical services, purchase insurance or obtain a driver’s license, passport, social security benefits or your tax refund in your name, then you should know that this service usually CANNOT DETECT these forms of fraud.
3. Some traditional credit monitoring services offer “managed restoration” and limited identity theft insurance (not available in all states). Information services to help you protect yourself vary widely by the provider. In almost all cases managed restoration is usually little more than a to-do list prepared for you to do to help yourself and the insurance offers little real benefit which is why may be why some states now ban its sale.
4. Offers no protection for most children since they don’t have credit files to monitor.

PRIME™ Score = 20% (Poor)

Because Traditional Credit Monitoring offers no proactive protection benefit, limited help with restoration and monitors only the credit file of one or more credit bureaus, it offers very incomplete protection for you if you want to control your ID.

Expert opinion

Traditional credit monitoring is the identity protection industry’s legacy product. As the oldest product available to consumers to protect their identity it has the greatest recognition among consumers but has actually been surpassed by more advanced solutions like Control Your ID. Traditional credit monitoring earns a poor on the PRIME score

Advantages of CYID

CYID has the following advantages:

1. Prevents identity theft with proactive identity protection that instructs lenders and others to verify all applications with you directly before approving them.
2. Restores identity records if identity fraud occurs
3. Informs you of new risks including data breaches and teaches you how to avoid them
4. Available protection for children
5. Monitors the credit file with CRANE™ at no charge
6. Expense reimbursement guarantee up to $1 Million should identity theft strike

Enjoy the peace of mind that comes from knowing you Control Your ID. Enroll now!