Are Credit Card Add-On Services Valuable?
By: Rachel Polansky
Updated: October 23, 2012
When it comes to paying extra money for add-on services from credit cards, many people say they have mixed feelings.
Are services like debt protection, credit monitoring and identity theft protection actually valuable products? Eyewitness News spoke with an area credit counseling office and they say often, the add-ons are not worth your money.
"If you're looking at an add-on product, you always want to look at the fine print. Because a lot of the times it may not be worth the actual investment. If the expense of that program is going to be a lot of money every single month, it's not going to be worth it for the client. I would just recommend the client monitoring their own credit and using the money they would be spending on that, and stick that into savings," says Amy Bellavia, ClearPoint credit counselor.
Credit counselors say you can monitor your own credit card for free. And of course as you know, they say to make sure you're opening your statements every month and checking your credit reports at least on a yearly basis.
Are services like debt protection, credit monitoring and identity theft protection actually valuable products? Eyewitness News spoke with an area credit counseling office and they say often, the add-ons are not worth your money.
"If you're looking at an add-on product, you always want to look at the fine print. Because a lot of the times it may not be worth the actual investment. If the expense of that program is going to be a lot of money every single month, it's not going to be worth it for the client. I would just recommend the client monitoring their own credit and using the money they would be spending on that, and stick that into savings," says Amy Bellavia, ClearPoint credit counselor.
Credit counselors say you can monitor your own credit card for free. And of course as you know, they say to make sure you're opening your statements every month and checking your credit reports at least on a yearly basis.
