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to monitor your credit reports in case any errors occur
                      that need to be corrected.
                      Are you growing fast enough? Factors such as your credit
                      mix (the mix of different types of accounts) can affect how
                      fast your credit grows, so it’s worth keeping tabs on how
                      fast your credit score is rising to see if its rate of growth is
                      meeting your expectations. If not, you might look at what
                      types of accounts you lack that could speed thingsup.

                   So now that you’ve started to establish business credit, it’s a
                good idea to check at least some of your credit reports on an at-
                least-quarterly basis. Many services also exist which will notify
                you  daily,  weekly,  or  monthly  of  any  changes  to  your  credit
                report.
                   It is also important to know that signing up for a credit moni-
                toring  service  generally  does  not  adversely  impact  your  credit
                score.  While  making  a  “hard  inquiry”  about  your  credit  in
                pursuit of opening a new credit line may temporarily hurt your
                score,  routine  credit  monitoring  services  do  not  have  the  same
                effect.
                   Both  free  and  paid  credit  monitoring  services  are  available.
                Paid services may have advantages such as increased frequency
                of  alerts,  greater  accuracy,  and  may  include  added  features.
                Fraud, identity theft insurance, and monitoring of the dark web
                to  see  if  your  information  has  been  leaked  by  hackers  are  two
                common services offered by paid credit monitoring services.
                   For my money, if you can pay a few dollars per month for
                tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars in identity theft insur-
                ance, that’s a good investment.
                   So which credit reports should you monitor, and why?


                DUN & BRADSTREET


                As we’ve discussed, Dun & Bradstreet is a useful report for cred-
                itors and business owners because it provides a comprehensive



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