LIFELOCK - I appreciate the insights and willingness of folks on this site to share their knowledge and experience

[keithbyrd]

I have seen many discussions and been in some on this site and I have come to trust the insights and advice given - so thank all of you who have participated!
Now a new one! I have been a Lifelock subscriber for a number of years. I have a sense that there are as good if not better and more cost effective providers out there today and I would like to get some of your insights and perspectives on what you thoughts are on this area of protection!
Do you use ID protection services? Which one and what are your thoughts about it?
Thanks in advance!

 

[Darios]

Ahem. A subject near and dear my heart.

I do not use paid for ID protection services as you can get most of what they offer by utilizing this-one-trick-that-the-credit-bureaus-hate*.
You can lock your credit for free at all of the credit bureaus, by law, and it's free.

Here's a good article explaining it : https://krebsonsecurity.com/2018/09/credit-freezes-are-free-let-the-ice-age-begin/

In addition to the big 3 credit bureaus, if you are going the do it yourself route, don't forget to lock your chexsystem account as well
https://www.chexsystems.com/security-freeze/information

It was a bit of a hassle back in the 2010s to unfreeze your credit before applying for something, and then having to go back in and refreeze it, but it's not so difficult any more. You can go in and set an unfreeze for X days or for specific vendors.

Now, it's a hassle so possibly credit services like Lifelock have value in terms of effort saved in return for money spent.
But I've also heard these services described as having your burglar alarm go off 5 minutes /after/ the thieves get in your house.

But in the interest of fairness, two counterpoints to my thinking above
1) The login security and general idiocy at the Equifax and Experian (Transunion /seems/ to have their crap together) means you can never be really certain that your freeze stays frozen.
(Two further articles from the same most-excellent source above)
https://krebsonsecurity.com/2019/03/myequifax-com-bypasses-credit-freeze-pin/
https://krebsonsecurity.com/2021/04/experians-credit-freeze-security-is-still-a-joke/

2) There is one advantage that some credit locking services offer that do-it-yourself does not, and that's assistance in remediation after identity theft - that might also be worth the cost as well.

Note - while not directly related to credit freezing and monitoring, a very helpful tactic is to put an alert on everyone of your credit and bank cards that sends you an email or text whenever a transaction is being charged and your card is not physically present. It can get a bit chatty around Christmas-time but it has absolutly saved me and my wife when our cards got skimmed/cloned or however they were compromised. Both times I was on the phone to the bank's fraud department in minutes and got the cards shut down immediately.

* No really. They /hate/ that you can freeze your credit for free by law. After the 2018 Equifax breech American's spent 1.4 BILLION dollars locking their credit to protect themselves from the incompetence and the problem that Equifax created in the first place. Remember this the next time some whack job starts going off about the big-bad-ebil-gubbmint-n-shits. The gubbmint, er, government did what it was supposed to do and protect the citizens against predatory businesses.


** Equifax also really hates that you can get your credit report for free as well. They are the only one of the 3 agencies that still play games and dick around with people trying to get it. I go out of my way every year (no really, I have a calender reminder) to get mine from Equifax just because they are such dicks about it. Not that I have any feelings about it.

 

[d_bondi]

Ahem. A subject near and dear my heart.

I do not use paid for ID protection services as you can get most of what they offer by utilizing this-one-trick-that-the-credit-bureaus-hate*.
You can lock your credit for free at all of the credit bureaus, by law, and it's free.

Here's a good article explaining it : https://krebsonsecurity.com/2018/09/credit-freezes-are-free-let-the-ice-age-begin/

In addition to the big 3 credit bureaus, if you are going the do it yourself route, don't forget to lock your chexsystem account as well
https://www.chexsystems.com/security-freeze/information

It was a bit of a hassle back in the 2010s to unfreeze your credit before applying for something, and then having to go back in and refreeze it, but it's not so difficult any more. You can go in and set an unfreeze for X days or for specific vendors.

Now, it's a hassle so possibly credit services like Lifelock have value in terms of effort saved in return for money spent.
But I've also heard these services described as having your burglar alarm go off 5 minutes /after/ the thieves get in your house.

But in the interest of fairness, two counterpoints to my thinking above
1) The login security and general idiocy at the Equifax and Experian (Transunion /seems/ to have their crap together) means you can never be really certain that your freeze stays frozen.
(Two further articles from the same most-excellent source above)
https://krebsonsecurity.com/2019/03/myequifax-com-bypasses-credit-freeze-pin/
https://krebsonsecurity.com/2021/04/experians-credit-freeze-security-is-still-a-joke/

2) There is one advantage that some credit locking services offer that do-it-yourself does not, and that's assistance in remediation after identity theft - that might also be worth the cost as well.

Note - while not directly related to credit freezing and monitoring, a very helpful tactic is to put an alert on everyone of your credit and bank cards that sends you an email or text whenever a transaction is being charged and your card is not physically present. It can get a bit chatty around Christmas-time but it has absolutly saved me and my wife when our cards got skimmed/cloned or however they were compromised. Both times I was on the phone to the bank's fraud department in minutes and got the cards shut down immediately.

* No really. They /hate/ that you can freeze your credit for free by law. After the 2018 Equifax breech American's spent 1.4 BILLION dollars locking their credit to protect themselves from the incompetence and the problem that Equifax created in the first place. Remember this the next time some whack job starts going off about the big-bad-ebil-gubbmint-n-shits. The gubbmint, er, government did what it was supposed to do and protect the citizens against predatory businesses.


** Equifax also really hates that you can get your credit report for free as well. They are the only one of the 3 agencies that still play games and dick around with people trying to get it. I go out of my way every year (no really, I have a calender reminder) to get mine from Equifax just because they are such dicks about it. Not that I have any feelings about it.

Great stuff Darios.

This is exactly what we have done (years ago). Locked our credit at all three credit bureaus and set notifications on all credit cards. Is it a little bit of a hassle when you want to do a 6 months same as cash on a new refrigerator, sure, but not really a huge deal and much simpler than the other potential consequences.

Thanks for the link to ChexSystems, I was completely unaware of that one.

 

[bsshog40]

My wifes identity was stolen a couple years ago from a thief that broke into our storage unit. Luckily she was notified by Credit Karma of 2 accts being opened. She was able to shut them both down before any damage was done. Since then, we both also opened a free acct with the big 3 credit companies and have since locked our credit. If we need to open them for something, you can go in and unfreeze it for a day and then freeze it back afterwards. Have not had any issues with identity theft since then.
On a side note, the thief that broke into our storage was caught and received 25 yrs for forgery. All our items stolen were were lost though.

 

[Woodchipper]

Interesting post. I received a letter addressed to my father at my address. It said his application for a credit card had been turned down due to an insufficient credit record. I guess that was because he had been dead for 15 years.