Savvy consumers are taking a much more hands-on stand against the growing problem of identity theft by checking their credit report an average of every three weeks, according to research.

This seemingly paranoid level of activity is however actually really easy if you have on-line access to your credit scoring.

"CreditExpert members have unlimited online access to their credit report," said Jim Hodgkins, managing director of Experian's CreditExpert service, "and they are taking full advantage of that benefit by looking at their credit report an average of 1.2 times a month. They are also receiving, on average, an alert every month notifying them of an important change to their credit report."

Jim believes they are the UK’s only online credit report monitoring and identity theft protection service.

The dynamic nature of many people’s credit commitments means that their credit report can change on a week by week basis. By understanding that taking simple steps such as regular monitoring of their credit report, people can keep in full control of their credit history and their own identity.

Mr. Hodgkins said: "Our experience is that people are now starting to learn about the benefits of this type of service. Without it, it used to take an average of 16 months – and as much as four years – to discover that you’d been a victim of identity theft. Now it can be less than a week."

"That’s why the number of people signing up to CreditExpert grew by two-thirds in the last six months."

To find out more click on www.creditexpert.co.uk

Experian also offers consumers the choice of viewing their credit report online free of charge if they sign up to a trial the CreditExpert credit monitoring and identity fraud protection service for 30 days, or paying £2.00 for a one-off, printed copy of their statutory credit report to be posted to them.