How Are Credit Report Alerts Sent Out?

If you currently have a credit monitoring service in place on your credit report, you might be wondering just how it is that you will receive the notifications if something goes awry. After all, you're probably paying quite a lot of money per month for the service, so you want to be sure that any notifications which are issued will indeed be received.

In this article, we'll take a look at the most common ways that credit reporting agencies and credit service providers send out their credit report notifications to customers. We'll also look at how often the notifications are sent and how quickly they are sent after a new transaction is found.

Accepted Methods of Credit Report Alert Delivery

More often than not, a credit service provider who is offering credit monitoring facilities on your credit record will send out a notification via e-mail, text message, or in some cases they will even give you a call.

This certainly provides a range of options for people who are situation limited, for example those who do not have cell phones, or those who do not have ready access to the Internet.

How Often Are Alerts Sent?

Depending on the service that you have signed up to, you'll be subscribed to one of the following notification systems:

1. Real time credit report notification.
2. Delayed credit report information.

If you have a real-time credit report monitoring service, you should receive a notification of any changes which are made within about an hour of them being entered onto your credit reports.

If you have a delayed subscription, which costs less, it might take up to a full business day for your notification to be delivered, depending on the time that the entry was made to your credit report.

Choosing Two Credit Report Notification Methods

Because of the seriousness that new entries can have when impacting your credit report and credit score, it makes sense to choose two separate notification methods when signing up for the subscription.

This means that if your e-mail is currently down, you'll still receive a text message to your phone (back up notification method). Alternatively, if you are out of coverage area, you will still receive an e-mail advising you of the changes to be checked.