The [tag]American Institute of Certified Public Accountants[/tag] ([tag]AICPA[/tag]) lost the [tag]social security numbers[/tag] of all of its members earlier this year. I was notified of this via a letter dated May 8.

The organization offered its members one free year of [tag]credit monitoring[/tag], with the program available on May 23. Today I signed up for the credit monitoring and was surprised to find out the following details about it:

Enjoy peace of mind knowing all 3 of your national credit files are monitored every day and that you will be informed of key changes when they occur. Actively monitoring your credit can be your first line of defense against identity fraud and inaccuracies that may affect your credit.

What this means is that the credit monitoring service will notify me of any changes to my [tag]credit report[/tag] from today forward.

So what happens to changes that may have occurred after the AICPA compromised my information and prior to this service being available to me? I clicked the button that offered to let me see my credit report. I need to know where I stand today, don’t I? I need to find out if my credit has been used up until today, don’t I?

I was kindly informed that there would be a charge to view my credit report. What???? What good is the credit monitoring service offered by the AICPA if we’re not allowed to see our credit reports as part of it?