I don't know if you NEED to check in that often, but Credit Karma is free and its just so easy to check. All you do is log-on and check. I would recommend quarterly as a minimum.

I don't know about monthly, but regular checking is a good idea. I check mine quarterly in theory. In practice I order it and actually check it maybe twice a year. It's worth keeping on top of as there can be some very odd things on it, and it's worth making sure everything is reporting correctly.

FrankN wrote: I also check mine about once a month and use Credit Karma to monitor as well.

Do you think it should be checked that often? I haven't checked mine in forever. However, I did just purchase a new vehicle and they checked it. I have excellent credit and I now have a car payment. Bleah!!!! LOL!!

I also check mine about once a month and use Credit Karma to monitor as well.

I had this happen when I tried to purchase a new stove one time. I hadn't used my one credit card in so long that they thought it was a fraudulent charge and denied it right away. It's good to see these companies on top of things like this. It makes you feel a little bit more secure about things. I will definitely have to check my credit report just to be sure that there isn't anything on there that shouldn't be. How often do you think something like this should be done?

So glad everything turned out well for you Nuovocapitolo. I really should keep a check on my score as well. I did try to use my debit card online once to purchase something. My bank saw that it was not normal for me to do so. They immediately registered it as fraud, cancelled my card and issued me a new one. Needless to say, I didn't get the item but was pleased to see the bank was monitoring so closely.

The last thing that companies like Experian want is a bad reputation. They seem to understand the importance of consumer trust.

I check mine once a month out of habit.

I'm glad Exp reacted so quickly and that your credit score is back to where it was. A similar thing happened to a friend of mine. Long story short, her bag was stolen with her debit cards in it. They also stole checks from another women. They then made out some of those checks to my friend, and drove to her town to cash them at her bank at one of those drive-throughs in the far lane so that it would be hard to ID them. The bank recalled the checks, and the money was recalled from her account. That is when she first went to go and find out what was happening. They then pieced together what had happened with video footage of the thieves and police investigation opened. The tellers are in trouble for not checking the identification properly. So, yeah be careful everyone.

Generally you can find some pretty inexpensive services, like under $10/month as you mentioned. I was actually a part of the Target hack and they paid for a years worth of service.

This is a good reminder for me to start checking my credit more frequently. The monitoring services aren't expensive - I know that my bank does it for under $10 /mo. I guess I really don't have any excuses.

I try and check mine every month or so as well. I agree it would create a huge headache that would go on for months or even years.

I try to check mine every 2 weeks. It only take a few minutes and could potentially save me months of headaches should I ever get hacked.

Identity theft scares me. You hear some awful stories in the news where a person's life is turned upside down from it. It's hard to come back from something like that. I avoid leaving any financial or personal information on my computer or cell phone.

I really need to start checking my score more often. I didn't even think about checking it tout see if there were any fraudulent accounts. Ugh! Glad everything was taken care of, but what a pain.

Forgot to mention my credit score plummeted 80 pts too!. Proof-pay your bills on time.

UPDATE-Experian REMOVED the account. Credit score back where it was before the account was added.