You hear a lot about credit monitoring, but most of them cost money. Well, a website called Credit Karma offers free monitoring and provides your (real) credit score for free. Check it out at creditkarma.com. The other, and best, option is to freeze your credit. This stops criminals from trying to open credit as if they were you. Some states offer this for free, but you can check it out by searching "how to freeze my credit". Just make sure you freeze your credit with all three credit bureaus (Equifax, TransUnion, and Experian).