Credit/Identity Protection: Who Do You Use?

[Mad German]

I'm a current Equifax customer, but their recent breach made me start to wonder if im better off using someone like Transunion or Lifelock. My wife has been using Transunion for years without issue, so I might switch to them.

If you use any sort of credit/identity theft profltection service, can you tell me who you use? Happy with them? Any issues? Would you recommend?

All comments and info will be appreciated.

Thx!

 

[graler]

I have read good things about Zander Insurance Identity Theft. They actively take a role not only in protection but in the aftermath of the repair.

 

[rogdeb]

We're TrustedID members -- BUT -- they were bought by Equifax a while ago !!

 

[wfooshee]

 

[DennisJ]

Right. That looks like a real secure way to check.

 

[DennisJ]

Much easie and more secure r to just log onto your bank account and check the transactions on your accounts on a frequent basis. No disclosure of any account or personal details to anyone.

 

[Geezer]

Much easie and more secure r to just log onto your bank account and check the transactions on your accounts on a frequent basis. No disclosure of any account or personal details to anyone.

This works for me. Also, use common sense and caution with your information.

Do not use debit cards. With a credit card the issuer is responsible for fraud against your account after a small deductible, with a debit card the responsibility is all yours.

Carry enough cash that you can pay small vendors with cash rather than risk that they may be careless with your credit card data.

Protect your SS number. There are only a few places where it is legally required even though many places ask for it.

 

[Ignacio]

Much easie and more secure r to just log onto your bank account and check the transactions on your accounts on a frequent basis. No disclosure of any account or personal details to anyone.

Except if a baddie has opened a completely new account you have no knowledge about it. That's the more common scenario with this hack then them breaking into an existing account.

Protect your SS number. There are only a few places where it is legally required even though many places ask for it.

That's the problem with this hack! The baddies may have gotten 143 million of them. What used to be one line in a defense to establish identity evaporated and will have to be replaced by something even more convoluted.

 

[rogdeb]

Indeed !!

 

[Bill Lumberg]

My agency had a breach a while back. They provided infoarmor to everyone. They ping me via text and email every time so much as a sniff happens.

 

[K_Flyer]

We use Costco IdentityGuard. Has been very useful to find issues with one's "public record" and sort them out. Also very interesting to see how many ways my name can be misspelled. Theresa and I have separate accounts with them which at times has helped pick up some errors.

Like some here, I check my accounts every few days. This morning I listened to a webinar from my investment advisors on the Equifax issue. Some take-aways:

• Don't use checks. Lots of information on them including home address, bank routing and account number, copy of your signature ripe for scanning. shops will often as for your driver's license for identification --- and write that number on the check as well!
• Credit cards are the safest for all but small purchases as they are protected.
• Debt card issue must be addressed in a couple of days for full protection. One week you could lose $500. Two months you could lose it all.
• Use the alert service provided by your bank

 

[Bounce]

I use myself. I contact the credit bureaus and put locks on my accounts. No one can check your credit (or do anything else) without you first telling them to unlock it.

 

[BakerBoy]

+1. Credit accounts are Frozen (locked). I check my credit reports every year. I monitor my accounts closely. Plus, I've setup alerts so that I get a text the moment there's any money movement or pending charge for any of my accounts.

 

[Mr Bill]

I'm a victim of equifax breach.

I've put lock on all three credit reporting agencies.

I'm not sure what to do about my drivers license. RMV is not easy to deal with. I'll see if I can go back to my social security number for my drivers license number. There is a picture of me in the system so maybe the license is not a big worry?

Anyone do anything about stolen drivers license?

 

[rogdeb]

"We use Costco IdentityGuard. Has been very useful to find issues with one's "public record" and sort them out."

Thanks K_Flyer

^^^

Another Equifax victim here, and no longer can trust TrustedID

 

[K_Flyer]

Went to the EquifaxSecurity2017 site this morning and was not surprised to see I am one of those affected. Since I have the Costco IdentityGuard service, I saw no point to give Equifax any more information by signing up for their service. I did check with IdentityGuard and found that the plan I have includes monitoring of the "dark web" and related chat sites. In the process, I found out their Total Protection plan includes a lot more than I realized. I feel a little more secure now, but only a little!

BTW, one point to add to my list above is that the scumbags will often wait months or a year for you to be lulled into a false sense of security before they strike. You can never relax your vigilance. Rather like "Never trust a driver in a cage."

 

[Bounce]

Went to the EquifaxSecurity2017 site this morning and was not surprised to see I am one of those affected. Since I have the Costco IdentityGuard service, I saw no point to give Equifax any more information by signing up for their service. I did check with IdentityGuard and found that the plan I have includes monitoring of the "dark web" and related chat sites. In the process, I found out their Total Protection plan includes a lot more than I realized. I feel a little more secure now, but only a little!
BTW, one point to add to my list above is that the scumbags will often wait months or a year for you to be lulled into a false sense of security before they strike. You can never relax your vigilance. Rather like "Never trust a driver in a cage."

By Equifax notifying the world of a year of free credit monitoring, most smart actors will wait 13 or 14 months to start dinging their data trove.

 

[Tyler]

ID Shield

 

[K_Flyer]

Curious! Tyler's link would take you to lessburdens.com, not the ID Shield site. Hover your mouse over the link and it will show you the URL.

This may be valid but I've seen enough fake links lately to make me check first.