Your credit score can affect your ability to take such actions as obtaining a loan, purchasing a house, or applying for insurance. Monitoring this score can give you a better idea of whether or not you will be approved for such services and reveal the impact of any negative information on your credit report. While it is possible to request a free report once every twelve months (at AnnualCreditReport.com), there is usually an expense associated with obtaining credit scores. Some services will provide a one-time indication of credit scores in exchange for payment, while others require a monthly fee for continuous access to reports and/or scores.

Experian.com offers credit report and score monitoring service for $12.95/month (as of August, 2007) or a one-time report and score for $15. Equifax.com has a service which allows you to continuously monitor your scores and see their trend (over time) for $8.95/month. A service for monitoring both the score and report is offered by TransUnion.com for $9.95 per month, as well. Another option is myFICO.com, which enables continuous monitoring for $8.95/month or $89.95/year. Scores can also be obtained for a fee when requesting a free credit report from AnnualCreditReport.com. Some of these services offer free trial periods, usually 30 days.

If you apply for services which can be affected by your credit score fairly often and have some reason to be concerned about it (unpaid bills, past bankruptcy, etc.), it might be worth paying for a monthly monitoring service. Another potential reason for continuously monitoring scores and reports is to spot identity theft or errors (they occur fairly frequently) which could be harmful. On the other hand, a one-time request of your score may be preferable if you do not have reason to be particularly concerned about it or cannot afford continuous monitoring. It should be considered that keeping the $9-13/month in savings which would be spend on credit monitoring will make it easier to pay your bills if you eventually encounter financial difficulties, which might do more to benefit your credit score.