Should you order a free ScoreSense credit report for your child? Even more importantly, should you use a ScoreSense membership to monitor your child’s credit report? ScoreSense works with the three leading credit bureaus – Equifax, TransUnion and Experian – to compile your report; however, all three have different rules regarding releasing credit reports of minor children.
With ScoreSense, credit report checking can be accomplished quickly and easily. When you join, you are billed monthly by OTL Scoresense.com for access to a variety of reports and services designed to help protect your credit score and save you from the consequences of identity theft.
For minors, the ScoreSense credit monitoring service can keep identity thieves from ruining a credit history that hasn’t even had a chance to get established. But the credit reporting bureaus maintain strict rules for releasing credit information on anyone they know to be age 17 and younger.
These rules make it more difficult for identity thieves to obtain information on your child and use your child’s identity. It also makes it more difficult for ScoreSense or you independently to obtain a credit report on your child. From a security standpoint, this is a good thing, but it can be frustrating.
Ordinarily, your child would not have a credit history for the credit bureaus to report. Unless your child is listed as a joint account holder on a credit card, or has obtained credit by lying about his or her age, the credit bureaus should have no information on your minor child.
If information does exist, it is possible someone has used your child’s identity to obtain credit illegally. Unfortunately, this is usually someone close to your child, such as a family friend or relative.
Once your child turns 18, a ScoreSense credit report is not only easier to obtain, it makes perfect sense. Monitoring credit scores and usage, even if you pay the monthly charge from OTL Scoresense.com, protects your child from the consequences of identity theft and ensures they will not encounter roadblocks when renting, obtaining a cell phone or (most importantly) seeking a job.
To learn more about ScoreSense and how to obtain a ScoreSense credit report, visit our website at www.scoresense.com or follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.
