Report existence monitoring

Abstract

Certain consumers may not have a credit report and, thus, may not be able to enroll in a credit monitoring service. A credit report monitoring system requests a credit report of consumers that are attempting to enroll in a credit monitoring service. If no credit report is located for the consumer, a credit report of the consumer is automatically periodically requested by the system. When a credit report is later located, the consumer may continue with enrollment in a credit report monitoring service. In this way, the consumer is alerted of the (possibly fraudulent) creation of a credit report and is quickly able to enroll in a credit monitoring service.

1 . A computer readable medium storing software instructions that are readable by a computing system, wherein the software code is executable on the computing system in order to cause the computing system to perform the method of enrolling a consumer in a credit monitoring service, the method comprising:
 (a) providing a user interface to a consumer;   (b) receiving enrollment information from the consumer via the user interface, the enrollment information comprising one or more of: a name, a social security number, and an address of the consumer;   (c) transmitting a credit report request to a credit bureau, the credit report request comprising at least some of the enrollment information;   (d) receiving an indication that the credit bureau did not locate a credit report of the consumer;   (e) notifying the consumer that a credit report was not located by the credit bureau; and   (f) after a predetermined time,
 requesting a credit report of the consumer from the credit bureau; 
 if a credit report is not returned in response to the request, returning to step (f); 
 if a credit report is returned in response to the request, continuing enrollment of the consumer in the credit monitoring service. 
   
     
     
         2 . The computer readable medium of  claim 1 , wherein notifying comprises transmitting an electronic message to the consumer. 
     
     
         3 . The computer readable medium of  claim 2 , wherein the electronic message comprises an email. 
     
     
         4 . The computer readable medium of  claim 1 , wherein the predetermined time is one day, one week, or one month. 
     
     
         5 . The computer readable medium of  claim 1 , wherein the predetermined time is selected by the consumer. 
     
     
         6 . The computer readable medium of  claim 1 , wherein the user interface is viewable in a web browser 
     
     
         7 . The computer readable medium of  claim 1 , wherein the enrollment information is received via a network. 
     
     
         8 . The computer readable medium of  claim 1 , wherein the credit report request is transmitted to a plurality of credit bureaus. 
     
     
         9 . The computer readable medium of  claim 1 , wherein the credit bureau comprises the credit monitoring service. 
     
     
         10 . A computerized method of enrolling a consumer in a service that requires the existence of a credit report, the method comprising:
 receiving an indication from one or more credit bureaus that a credit report for the consumer is not available;   periodically requesting a credit report of the consumer from the one or more credit bureaus; and   if a credit report of the consumer is located, continuing enrollment of the consumer in the service.   
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 10 , further comprising receiving enrollment information for one or more consumers. 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 10 , further comprising notifying the consumer when the indication that no credit report is available for the consumer is received. 
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 10 , further comprising notifying the consumer when a credit report for the consumer is received. 
     
     
         14 . A computerized method of monitoring the existence of a credit report for a consumer, the method comprising:
 requesting a credit report for a consumer from one or more credit bureaus;   receiving an indication from the one or more credit bureaus that a credit report for the consumer is not available;   after a predetermined time period, requesting a credit report for the consumer from the one or more credit bureaus;   receiving an indication from the one or more credit bureaus that a credit report for the consumer is not available; and   repeating the request of a credit report for the consumer until a credit report for the consumer is available.   
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 14 , further comprising providing the consumer with information on one or both of fraud resolution or credit monitoring services. 
     
     
         16 . A system for enrolling a consumer in a credit monitoring service, the system comprising:
 an enrollment module configured to receive enrollment information for a consumer and to enroll the consumer in a credit monitoring service; and   a report existence module configured to request a credit report of the consumer from one or more credit bureaus, wherein
 in response to receiving an indication that no credit report is available for the consumer, the report existence module is configured to periodically re-request a credit report of the consumer; and 
 in response to receiving an indication that a credit report is available for the consumer, continuing enrollment of the consumer in the credit monitoring service. 
   
     
     
         17 . The system of  claim 16 , further comprising a notification module configured to notify the consumer when a credit report is received for the consumer. 
     
     
         18 . The system of  claim 16 , wherein the report existence module re-request a credit report of the consumer on a periodic basis. 
     
     
         19 . The system of  claim 18 , wherein a period of the periodic basis is determined by the consumer. 
     
     
         20 . The system of  claim 18 , wherein a period of the periodic basis varies over time.