How to Monitor Your Child’s Credit Score

In a perfect world, you wouldn’t have to worry about your child’s credit. Unfortunately, financial scammers are everywhere, and if you don’t stay vigilant, your child could turn 18 and find out they’ve already been saddled with fraudulent debt.

In this article, we’ll take you through how to monitor child credit scores to protect your child’s financial future.

How to monitor child credit scores

If you want to keep an eye on your own credit score, you can request a free copy of your credit report at AnnualCreditReport.com or sign up for a credit monitoring service. Many banks, credit card issuers, and credit-builder apps (including Kikoff!) let you monitor your credit, too. 

Children aren’t generally supposed to have credit scores, so monitoring your child’s credit is a little different. You typically have to contact each credit bureau and ask it to search for a credit report in your minor child’s name. Each credit bureau has slightly different procedures for doing so:

• Experian: Has an online portal where parents can submit Child Identity Theft Protection forms
• TransUnion: Has an online portal where parents can submit a Child Identity Theft Inquiry
• Equifax: Usually requires parents to get in touch by mail

Always visit each credit bureau’s website for the most up-to-date information on monitoring your child’s credit.

Why monitoring your child’s credit matters

If your child is under 18, they probably shouldn’t have a credit report. There are a few situations where they might:

• They’ve been added as an authorized user to an adult’s credit account
• They are a joint account holder with an adult
• The credit file was created by mistake when someone with a similar name applied for credit
• An identity thief has stolen their information and used it to access credit

If your family is dealing with one of the latter two situations, it’s important to take action quickly. Identity thieves rarely pay their bills, so if there are accounts open in your child’s name, their credit report could be full of past-due debts they never signed up for. 

Even if you have no reason to believe your child’s identity has been stolen, it’s still a good idea to periodically check with the credit bureaus. The earlier you catch fraud, the easier it will be to deal with.

What to do if your child’s identity has been stolen

Understanding how to monitor child credit scores is just part of the picture. However, if your child has a credit report that contains fraudulent information, you’ll need to know what steps to take next.

Report identity theft

Identity theft is a crime, and you should report it to the Federal Trade Commission at IdentityTheft.gov right away. You’ll generally need proof of a report to successfully dispute fraudulent information.

Contact any companies listed

If you see a financial institution listed on your child’s report, get in touch with that institution’s fraud department to explain the situation.

Request a credit freeze

Placing a security freeze on your child’s credit can reduce the risk of more fraudulent accounts.

Dispute with credit bureaus

You might also need to open formal disputes with each of the three credit bureaus. Proving that your child is a minor should be enough to get the fraudulent accounts off their report.

Conclusion

Checking whether your child has a credit report is a small habit that can save them years of cleanup later.

Contact each bureau directly using its own process, since Experian and TransUnion offer online portals while Equifax generally requires mail. If you do find a report, freeze it, file with the FTC, and dispute the fraudulent accounts with proof that your child is a minor.

Just make sure you're watching your own credit with the same attention.

Kikoff gives eligible users access to a Kikoff Credit Account with no interest and no hard credit check to sign up, and reports monthly payments to all three credit bureaus.

Build credit with Kikoff and add positive payment history to your credit profile.