That $80 credit monitoring service nearly cost me a mortgage

Last spring I paid $80 for a credit monitoring service after a data breach scare. It kept flagging my normal utility payments as potential fraud, so I ignored the alerts and almost missed a real collection notice from a medical bill I forgot about. The service never told me about a hard inquiry that dropped my score 40 points right before my lender pulled it in July. I ended up paying a higher rate and my loan officer said the old free monthly check from my bank would have shown the same thing. Anyone else think these paid services just create noise instead of actual protection?

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1 Comment

noahhall4d agoMost Upvoted

Those services make money off your worry, not your actual credit health.