How often to look at reports?

[Anonymous]

So I'm currently in the "boring" phase of FICO scores- as a grad student, I can't even apply for a CLI because my "income" is low and non-permenant.  I already have a house, we just bought one car with cash and traded the other in for an even trade so that's not an issue, and my student loan is in deferment.  I have 3 CC with good amounts ($9.5k, $14k, $24k) and good APR (less than 14% on all), plus one store card I use about once a year and pay off within 48 hours of purchase.  I'm an AU on my mother's cards, but at least right now, she's doing ok with paying them on time and in full.  My DH and I are joint on the mortgage, but other than that and the AU cards (x3), I'm solo on products.

Thus, my question.... how often should I look at the reports?  I can pull them once a year for free, I know, but should I look at them more than that?  I do have a Quizzle account, and last used their free report in March - everything reporting as expected and nothing new (other than stupid car people pulling it even when I said no).

I also rarely, if ever, get CC offers in the mail (I tried to opt out) and I religously check my CCs for random charges - so I'm not super worried about ID theft.  I also only bank with PenFed/Ally/USAA and all are good about contacting me if something comes up.  I also tell them when I travel (which isn't much).

Thus, is twice a year good enough?  Plus random Quizzle pulls when they let me....?  (One for reports only, one for reports+ scores on my birthday)  Should I space out the "Free pulls" doing one in Jan, one in April, one in June, one in Sept plus random Quizzle pulls?

I don't want to miss anything important, but I really want to minimize the time I worry about this/spend on it...so advice please?

Thanks! 

[p-]

At that point you might consider spacing out your yearly pulls.  Do one every 4 months, so each is once a year.  If someone does steal your identity, you will probably see accounts and inquiries pop up on any of the 3, so you'll be better covered.

The alternative is to find a low priced monitoring service that notifies you about new accounts, inquiries, etc. 

Congrats on the great scores, BTW.

[Anonymous]

Sounds like you are set, so why not simply freeze them?  Even before I froze mine, I still only got the once-yearly reports.  You have good credit, you're in a position where ID theft isn't much of a risk, so what is the purpose of checking them more than once yearly?  The credit bureaus may try to scare you into checking them regularly, but that's because they make $$$ from it. 

I have read various consumer forums for years now, and something I've noticed is that the vast majority of people monitoring them closely have bad credit and are attempting to deal with it.  Just a general observation...
 

[p-]

The yearly pulls are free...  It's information only, no score, but who cares as long as there's no fraud popping up.  Doing 1 every 4 months is reasonable, then maybe pay for a fully if you need to apply for credit.

[Anonymous]

Thanks -p, I forgot to add that, because PenFed screwed up, I do have ID Theft alerts for free from them for one year (from sometime early this year, I think to early 2012?).  So far, no activity ;-)

And I have no interest in freezing my reports - that costs money and I might need them sooner than I think, I like to prepare for emergency situations.

So it sounds like looking at my yearly free pulls once every 3 months, plus the full pull + score (at cost) for my birthday would be the best way to handle it.

Thanks!