The University of Missouri announced Tuesday June 19th it has entered into an agreement with the credit reporting agency Experian to offer credit monitoring services at a discounted rate.

While Mizzou is not picking up the entire cost of the credit monitoring service, the provisions allow for persons affected by the data breach, current students, faculty, staff, and retirees are all eligible to benefit from this agreement. The service provides for, among other perks, daily monitoring of all three credit bureaus, and $10,000 of identity theft insurance. There are numerous other companies that offer similar incentives to worried consumers who want to protect themselves, prices are usually between $12-$20 monthly.

However, as Travis has mentioned before, this is something you can do yourself with little to no out of pocket expense. Everyone is entitled one free credit report per year, per credit bureau (about one every 4 months). While this is not daily monitoring, it is free and a very good way to catch potential problems early.

Also, what you may not know is that the Attorney General's Office can assist you if you ever experience identity theft. Our office has helped hundreds of victims repair damaged credit reports as a result of ID Theft with no need to worry about filing an insurance claim or monthly fees.