In the U.S., the three major credit reporting agencies are Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. Each of these agencies and private companies (e.g., Lifelock) offer credit monitoring services. Private companies generally file fraud alerts every 90 days with one of the agencies. Consumers can of course do this themselves for free. My question is whether a consumer’s credit rating with the credit reporting agencies can or likely-will be reduced by doing so?