Posted: 12/11/2011 6:24:34 PM EDT
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The NRA has a promotion going for this service. I've read all the material, but still don't know if it's worth it –– $13/mo. +/-.
Any experience? What says the hive? 
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Not worth it, in my opinion. All these services do is let you know that your credit's already been hacked. The only real thing you can do to prevent your credit from getting hacked in the first place is to lock your credit with a credit freeze. No one will be able to access your credit without you unlocking it first. Major hassle, but the best protection. None of it will prevent your bank account from getting raided if your account info gets compromise, like they find out your account number and password from phishing (for example). [ETA] A few more details... There are many components to your finances. Credit monitoring usually means that you give someone permission to check your credit report continuously (like daily) and look for suspicious activity. It will alert you that it happened, but by then it's too late (although it mitigates how much damage can be done). There's your credit cards, and there's many ways people can get the info. A criminal waitperson scanning your card through a card reader to obtain the info, which they sell to others. Merchants getting hacked. Being careless with destroying old receipts. Wallet getting stolen. Who knows. I've had it happen almost anually. The best thing to do is to not carry too many credit cards and keep track of the transactions (I download mine once a week into Quicken). Most credit card companies are very quick to flag suspicious activity and immediately suspend the account. I had lunch and paid with my Discover Card. After work I went to the store and tried to buy something - the card was declined. By the time I got home, I had a message from Discover that someone wanted to charge multiple things to an online dating site and they flagged it right away. Not much you can do, but you're not responsible for fraudulent charges if you report it. Banks we already talked about. Your credit report is another big one. The fraud you're looking for here is credit inquiries and people opening credit in your name. That's where a credit monitoring agency comes in as previously mentioned. I mentioned a credit freeze, but you can also place a fraud alert on your report, which should let people who check your credit know that you've had issues and that they should double-check to confirm the identity of the person applying for credit and so on. It's not a requirement for them to do so however. Fraud alerts are good for 3 months, and I have a reminder on my phone set to remind me to renew my fraud alert every three months whether I need it or not. I figure it's a good idea to alert people checking my credit. |
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Quoted: Not worth it, in my opinion. All these services do is let you know that your credit's already been hacked. The only real thing you can do to prevent your credit from getting hacked in the first place is to lock your credit with a credit freeze. No one will be able to access your credit without you unlocking it first. Major hassle, but the best protection. None of it will prevent your bank account from getting raided if your account info gets compromise, like they find out your account number and password from phishing (for example). http://www.clarkhoward.com/news/clark-howard/personal-finance-credit/credit-freeze-and-thaw-guide/nFbL/ |
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Lifelock is not what they claim. Here are a few links to them being sued.
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/03/lifelock-accused-of-running-con-operation/ http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2009/05/lifelock/ http://money.gather.com/viewArticle.action?articleId=281474978093165 |
| Al of our accounts and investments are through a well established nationwide banking company. They seem to be monitoring for fraud and identity theft very well, to the point where we have had to change CC numbers when it really did not seem necessary to me so for me so I see this as buying something I already have. |