There are many credit monitoring and identity theft protection services, but sorting out who does what can be confusing. Knowing what you’re getting and what you’re not will make all the difference should you wind up a victim. It’s not just your employees and their families. Business Identity theft is on the rise too.
Identity theft prevention and monitoring services usually cost a monthly or yearly fee, but these costs can buy peace of mind and end up being a worthwhile investment. Where to turn for help is the big question? Do you go to your bank, free crediting monitoring services on websites? Choose wisely. There are a lot of free options. But ‘free’ doesn’t always translate into best. At least there is very little risk or downside to taking advantage of free offers. Free credit monitoring services are available on CreditKarma.com, CreditSesame.com, Quizzle.com, but they generally offer monitoring for one or two credit bureaus at most, not all three. Most of the products offered by your insurance company are little more than a lead generator for their agents.
Maybe you’re thinking your bank is a good idea. Using bank services for ID theft monitoring is not always the best choice, as many banks will only monitor accounts associated with their bank, leaving any separate credit cards and bank accounts unmonitored and thereby subject to vulnerability.
Be careful who you deal with
You want to deal with a reputable company. There are a few companies that are outright scams to get your name, date of birth and social security number so you can become a victim. One of the biggest factors in identity theft today is the simple fact that everyone’s information is available for sale online. Identity thieves know this and simply buy the details of their victims. Some of the top names you see advertised like Life Lock have had lawsuits with attorney generals in over 20 states about their coverage claims being exaggerated or misleading.
Do your part
Truth is, the best defense is a good offense. Be proactive. Change all your online passwords often, starting with those for your bank, credit cards, brokerage, and other financial accounts. Change your social media account passwords regularly, as well, to help keep anyone from hijacking your identity and infiltrating your network of friends and acquaintances.
Freeze or lower the daily spending limits of accounts that you don’t use frequently. Set up text alerts to immediately advise you each time your accounts are used.
Who Protects You the Best?
The problem with many identify theft protection and credit monitoring companies is that they simply don’t offer the services necessary to fully protect a consumer. For example, many don’t offer insurance, fraud alerts or proper customer assistance. Few offer restoration services (make sure you read the fine print, “help” with restoring your identity and credit is NOT the same as “restoring”. Only one company offers to restore your credit and that’s ID Shield with their exclusive arrangement with Kroll Cyber Security the leader in 30 countries takes your “power of attorney” and their team restores it and even backs up their claim with a $5 million guarantee. ID Shield with Kroll is the only service providing consumers with direct access to Kroll’s team of Licensed Private Investigators
ID Shield with Kroll is one of few companies that offer full restoration benefits. It is not an indemnity plan that requires you to pay for services, and then file for reimbursement. It’s the most comprehensive service on the market. Kroll, is the industry monster in protecting and rebuilding your credit in the event your Id is stolen. They are the go to company for many of the U.S. agencies when dealing with identify and other matters…In the event of a major breach or even monitor your ID, they bring you back to pre theft status, unlike the other ID services, they rebuild your credit and assign an investigator and if needed they use Legal Shield as the legal backstop to protect all aspect of identity!! With Legal Shield and Kroll, you are not spending hours on the phone being instructed on how to rebuild your credit and don’t have to spend the 400-500 hours to deal with all the headaches. Lifelock was sued by 23 State Attorney Generals Office for fraud and it appears you have to prove to them or sue them to have them rebuild your credit, they tell you how and you have to spend the 100’s hours to do it yourself!!!
Identity Theft Protection with Restoration for Pennies per day with Kroll/ID Shield
Value of A Kroll Consultation and Restoration ID Shield has an exclusive relationship with Kroll to Restore YOUR identity
Kroll/ID Shield Product Features
ID Shield Brochure Services/Features
IDShield vs Credit Monitoring Did you receive a notice from Anthem or another entity that your data was breached? Do you understand that Credit Monitoring is just that “monitoring for someone opening up credit with your data” and does nothing to restore an identity that is stolen with the breached data…..and this can occur months/years after the breach occurred and past the date of any free monitoring. It also does nothing to help if someone is using your identity for other purposes
ID Shield Price/Comparison to LL
Responding To a Data Breach/Identity Theft
Complete Your Coverage with Legal Services includes free calls to attorneys, free contract review, and free will!