Staying aware of what's happening with your credit history is vital, whether you've been a victim or not. There are several things you can do to stay on top of your credit and make it harder for identity thieves to do more damage. The options you have depend on where you live and what your situation is.

Active credit monitoring won't prevent ID-theft from happening, but it will tell you if someone has set up new lines of credit (credit cards, loans, mortgages, etc.) without your knowledge. Address changes or delinquencies on your credit history may also indicate someone has diverted an existing account. Finding out about these types of changes can help you stop an ID-theft incident before it becomes more serious.

There are several ways you can monitor your credit. For the most active monitoring of your credit history, you can subscribe to a credit monitoring service. The services alert you when there has been a change in your credit history, typically with an alert sent via email. The three major credit bureaus and their affiliates provide this service for a monthly or annual fee. The cost is typically around $60 - $70, but may be bundled with other services like credit scores, so prices may vary.

A slower (or less frequent) way to monitor your credit is by viewing a copy of your credit report from each of the three credit bureaus (Experian, Equifax and Trans Union). If you have been a victim of ID-theft or have been denied credit, you can request a free credit report.

Thanks to recently enacted legislation, the three major credit bureaus are now required to provide consumers with a centralized source from which they can obtain a free copy of their credit report every 12 months, whether or not they have been victims of ID-theft or have been denied credit.

Availability of the free credit reports began December 1, 2004 and will be rolled out across the country in phases through September 1, 2005. Below are the effective dates for consumers by state:

December 1, 2004: Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming.

March 1, 2005: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, and Wisconsin.

June 1, 2005: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas.

September 1, 2005: Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, and West Virginia, Puerto Rico, and all U.S. territories.

There are three ways to order your free annual credit report:

• By the Internet - type www.annualcreditreport.com into your web browser.
• By Phone - call 1-877-322-8228.
• By Mail - fill out the Request Form and mail it to:

  Annual Credit Report Request Service
  P.O. Box 105281
  Atlanta, GA 30348-5281

  Note: You must have an Adobe viewer to download the request form. Download the free Adobe viewer.

Remember that you don't have to order credit reports from all three providers at once. You can do so to compare all three (not every creditor reports to the same bureaus). Or, you can request one from each every few months throughout the year.

Fraud Alerts were initially established as a way for victims to flag their credit. When a fraud alert is in place, a creditor establishing a new account is to confirm the application is legitimate, usually by calling a telephone number that has been provided in the alert. The intention is to prevent "instant credit" from being provided without your approval. An initial fraud alert is temporary - 90 days - and is intended to give you a window of opportunity with which to check your credit report for signs of tampering and either confirm or rule out an identity theft incident. If you discover you are indeed a victim, the fraud alert can be extended up to seven years by making a written request and providing proof of the identity theft - such as a police report.

To establish a Fraud Alert, you can simply call one of the three credit bureaus and report that you suspect or know you have been a victim of ID-theft. If you contact one bureau, they are to notify the other two. However, it's not a bad idea to contact all three, if only for your own peace of mind. Links for all the credit bureaus can be found on the Resources page.

In theory, the fraud alert should be all you need to protect your credit if . However, creditors are not legally required to heed the fraud alerts. So it is quite possible for new credit accounts to be set up in your name even with a fraud alert in place.

The most recent weapon in the war to protect your credit is the credit freeze. A credit freeze completely shuts down access to your credit history. You are given a PIN to access your credit history. If you want to provide access - for a new loan or job application that requires a credit check, for example - you can "thaw" your credit history for a specified period of time.

A credit freeze is more difficult to establish. You must make a written request to each credit bureau, and each has different requirements. The nature of the credit freeze means that it will make getting credit much more difficult - not only for any potential fraud, but for you as well. Fees can be involved both to establish the freeze and each time you need to "thaw" it. So, the credit freeze is not perfect for everyone, but it promises to be the best method of preventing abuse of your good credit.

California was the first state to enact the credit freeze. Many others states have followed suit or are considering it currently. This is the most recent list.

Note: Some of the information on this page was excerpted from ID-Theft Protector. Access to free credit monitoring trials, easy-to-complete forms to request credit reports, as well as information on how to read and disput inaccuracies on your credit report is available in this comprehensive software. Click here for more information on ID-Theft Protector 2005.