Credit Report Service Plans

Q: I have been receiving from a number of places these offer to pay $50/yr to have my credit report monitored. They essentially will go out and consolidate the three credit reports from the three bureaus and present me with a single report. Some of the other features are (not all features available in all plans): - Ongoing credit monitoring, so they will notify me if someone assuming my identity went on a shopping spree - Quarterly update of the credit report - Medical Report (where medical insurance checks for my medical history) - Motor Vehicle Report (where auto insurance checks for my driving/accident history) Do you feel that the convenience factor is worth $50/yr? How about the ongoing monitoring? I know I can get the credit report once a year for free. How about Medical and Motor Vehicle records? Where/how can I get these for free?

A: What you ask about justifying the cost of a credit reporting service is personal decision. If you have a need to know such info on at least an annual basis and you don't ahve the time to get the info yourself, then $50 is probably a good investment. For me, I don't see the point in spending that

money. I am 37 years old and in my entire life, I think I have had to request my credit report twice and it took me all of five minutes to send out a note to the appropriate credit reporting agencies to request the reports. I have never had a need to request my motor vehicle records, but I suppose you could probably get that info for free or pretty cheap just by calling your state's Department of Motor Vehicals. If you have health insurance, you can certainly request your medical records from the insurance carrier or more likely, from your family doctor. Again, I have never had a reason to request my medical records so I don't see a great need to pay someone to get that info for me. .