6 Easy Ways to Protect Your Credit

Did you know that you should be checking your credit score at least once a year? With an increase in identity theft in recent years, it is crucial that you check to make sure that your identity hasn’t been compromised. There are a number of websites that offer free credit score reports and educational tips to help you prevent and safeguard your identity. I would take advantage of these free services to keep your credit safe, especially during the busy back-to-school season when you are shopping more than normal.

If you are a Discover cardmember, you can track up to a year of your FICO® Credit Scores for free. As the first major credit card issuer to proactively provide free FICO® Scores on cardmembers’ monthly statements, Discover is now helping cardmembers stay on top of their credit, better understand fluctuations in their score and avoid surprises.

With Discover’s FICO® Score for free offering, cardmembers can view up to a year’s history of their FICO® Credit Scores and receive key factors from their credit history that impact their scores, online. This new feature provides reasons from FICO® behind each score in one easy-to-read chart on monthly statements and online. This enhancement to cardmembers’ FICO® Score for free benefit is yet another example of Discover’s desire to tap into the evolving needs of customers.

Besides checking your credit score a minimum of once per year, there are several other ways to be proactive about protecting your credit. Take a look at the tips below to learn more!

6 Easy Ways to Protect Your Credit

1. Never give your bank account number, debit/credit card number, or social security number over the phone or email.
2. Create passwords for your accounts that contain letters, numbers and at least one special character. Make sure your mobile phone is password protected as well.
3. When shopping online, make sure that you only shop from sites that are secure (make sure the web address begins with “https”).
4. Run your debit card as “credit” if possible. It’s better to sign for your purchases than enter a pin.
5. Keep documents that contain personal information in a safe place, such as a safe or file cabinet that locks. Then make sure you shred them when they are no longer needed.
6. Get a free credit report once a year to make sure nothing unusual or suspicious has occurred under your name.

It’s important to remember that identity theft can happen to anyone, so make sure you are doing everything you can to protect yourself!

To see all the products and features Discover offers or to apply for a Discover credit card, visit Discover.com.

What are you doing to protect your credit? Share your tips below!

I wrote this post as part of the Discover Preferred Blogger Program. All opinions are my own.