Identity protection companies

[Jeff B]

Anyone use these? “LifeLock” “IDShield”, “Aura” etc.? Effective? Worthwhile? Worth the annual fee? 
 

 

[woowoo2]

Credit Karma will allow you to watch all three credit agencies for free.

[Kings over Queens]

I don't know if there is any value.

 

You can obtain a free copy of your credit report annually, so if you stagger it, you pretty much cover the year with all three.

 

January = Experian

April= Transunion

August = the 3rd one whos name I forget

 

You can also lock your credit so nobody can run checks without permission, and that should stop any new accounts from being open.

 

Follow up question, how in the hell did we as a society think it would be a good idea to give these 3 companies so much power with our financial information?  

[Kings over Queens]

52 mins ago, Jeff B said:

Anyone use these? “LifeLock” “IDShield”, “Aura” etc.? Effective? Worthwhile? Worth the annual fee? 

As an aside, if you check your usernames you'll probably find where at least one of your accounts was potentially exposed and that company will offer 3 years of free credit monitoring.  Every now and then google reminds me to check my passwords and reminds me of potential breeches.  

[hobobob]

21 mins ago, Kings over Queens said:

I don't know if there is any value.

 

You can obtain a free copy of your credit report annually, so if you stagger it, you pretty much cover the year with all three.

 

January = Experian

April= Transunion

August = the 3rd one whos name I forget

 

You can also lock your credit so nobody can run checks without permission, and that should stop any new accounts from being open.

 

Follow up question, how in the hell did we as a society think it would be a good idea to give these 3 companies so much power with our financial information?  

^^^ lock your credit reports.   Three private, for profit company, who answer to no one.  Absolutely madness if you think about it.

[squidder 329]

A question about these situations where people have their homes stolen. If you put a lien against your own home would that trigger you being contacted before they could complete the transaction?

[Kings over Queens]

2 mins ago, squidder 329 said:

A question about these situations where people have their homes stolen. If you put a lien against your own home would that trigger you being contacted before they could complete the transaction?

Contacted by whom?

 

The protection offered is that the lien transfers with the deed, so not likely that a thief would target your house, nor would a new owner accept a transfer with an outstanding lien on the deed.  You raise a really good point. 

[squidder 329]

My understanding of liens is that they need to be settled before the transaction could be completed. I was unaware they could be transferred with the deed.

[Kings over Queens]

Just now, squidder 329 said:

My understanding of liens is that they need to be settled before the transaction could be completed. I was unaware they could be transferred with the deed.

They could, but who in their right mind would accept a property or a car without a clear title?  New title insurance company wouldn't, the lawyer wouldn't, and the new owner/buyer wouldn't.

 

 

[mybeach]

Life lock was hacked recently.

[woowoo2]

The last time I purchased a car, I got an email from Credit Karma while I was in the finance office.

 

If you can put up with them trying to get you to sign up for credit cards, they are pretty good.

[fishinambition]

These are the people stealing your identies

[Kings over Queens]

1 hour ago, mybeach said:

Life lock was hacked recently.

So was experian.

[hobobob]

19 mins ago, Kings over Queens said:

So was experian.

Exactly when and why I lock my credit reports. Eff them, eff them all.

[sbcbmx112]

ID protection companies are useless.  You want to prevent the damage from occurring and all these companies are able to do is alert you once it's already happened.  It's a much better practice (and free) to freeze your credit file with the big 4 and monitor it yourself via free annual reports and/or credit karma.  I say big 4 because everyone forgets about Innovis and many experts recommend to include freezing your NCTUE file as a fifth.