LifeLock or Credit Monitoring
Credit monitoring has been a traditional way to control identity theft. It’s generally offered by the three credit bureaus - Equifax, TransUnion and Experian. In the past, this was the best type of protection available. LifeLock has become the new force in identity theft protection by offering a more proactive solution for a lower cost.
How Credit Monitoring Works
When you go to sign up for credit monitoring, you’ll get some choices. You can choose credit monitoring just from one credit bureau [least expensive] or you can get a 3-in1 package that will monitor your files at all 3 credit bureaus [most expensive].
Whenever a new account is opened with your name and information, you’ll receive an alert letting you know about it. If it was you - no problem. If it wasn’t you - you’ll know someone has just stolen your identity. At this point, you need to contact the new account and let them know it wasn’t you who opened it. You’ll also have to dispute any charges made on it.
Credit bureaus normally have an ID Theft help line you can call and ask for advice on how to do this. They give advice only - no hands on help. Identity theft insurance comes with their plans - usually $20,000-$25,000 in coverage in case you can’t recover all your stolen money.
Prices range from:
- Equifax’s Credit Watch Gold - $9.95 monthly, Equifax monitoring only
- Equifax Credit Watch Gold 3-in-1 for $12.95 monthly - monitors all 3 bureaus
- TransUnion - $14.95 monthly - 3-in-1 monitoring, credit report and score included
- Experian - $14.95 monthly - Experian monitoring only from freecreditreport.com, credit report and score included
The biggest drawback with credit monitoring is that you have to wait until AFTER your identity is stolen before you can take any action. The good news is you’ll learn about the theft quickly, but you still have to fix it - by yourself.
How LifeLock Works
LifeLock works in a way that’s proactive - meaning it’s designed to stop identity theft BEFORE it happens. They do this by placing a fraud alert on your credit file and renewing it every 90 days.
A fraud alert places a note on your credit files requesting any new creditor call you before a new line of credit is opened. So if you or anyone else applies for credit, you’ll get a phone call at the number you specify confirming that it’s OK to open the account.
Now, a fraud alert is free. You can do it yourself and LifeLock tells you that on their website. So exactly, what’s the point of using their services?
Identity thieves are becoming more and more clever and inventive. Occasionally a fraud alert doesn’t work properly in every case - nothing is ever 100% perfect. This is where LifeLock offers a service that’s almost priceless - if your identity is stolen, they’ll fix it for you. All you have to do is call and let them know.
And if your wallet is stolen - they’ll fix that for you, too. They call that ‘WalletLock’.
Whatever lost money they can’t recover for you, they’ll replace - up to a million dollars. Seriously, you’ll probably never lose a million dollars in identity theft, but you can lose hundreds of hours of time, worry and frustration fixing it yourself.
You get this for only $9 a month or $99 a year [$8.25 a month] with a 30 day free trial if you use the promo code - 9 - when you sign-up.
Credit monitoring absolutely plays a valuable role in many financial situations. But it’s not designed to prevent identity theft from happening. Credit bureaus prefer not to talk too much about fraud alerts because they don’t make any money with them.
To prevent identity theft, use a company like LifeLock who specializes in prevention and will be there for you every step of the way if your identity should be stolen.
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