Identity theft protection companies are a dime a dozen on the internet. There are a few industry leaders who provide great services, but what separates the best from the rest? The services offered by a variety of different identity theft protection services will be examined so you can understand exactly how your identity is being protected. Identity theft protection services are provided for both individuals and families. Their services can be broken down into credit monitoring and reports, protection services, and recovery services.
The first thing you should determine is your budget and whether you want individual or family protection. Most protection services are offered at a price range from $5-25 a month. Most services will provide discounts for longer terms, like annual subscriptions. Obviously if you have a family you will want to protect their credit as children are commonly targeted due to their clean credit history’s. You should find some reviews of identity theft protection services you are interested in. While most services will provide a guarantee of their service level in the form of identity theft insurance, you should take care to read the policies of an identity theft reimbursement insurance plan before making the purchase.
Credit monitoring includes your credit reports and in some cases scores from credit bureaus. You can usually read through the report in your dashboard. Many services also proactively monitor the web for private and public records with reference to your identity. Companies like LifeLock will automatically opt you out of pre-approved credit offers and take further proactive action to prevent your identity from being stolen. Markets which sell and otherwise expose identities are also monitored for your identity. When your information is removed from these malicious websites an identity protection service will continue to monitor the page for a repost of your information, so it can be removed again.
Recovery services offered by identity protection companies include assistance with cancelling your cards when they are lost or stolen and 24/7 access to credit experts. Most companies offering these services have exclusive contacts with crediting companies, and if necessary, will make contact with a creditor to resolve misuse of your identity. Any misuse of your identity with government agencies and private companies will also be cleared up.
If you are not currently protected you may want to consider subscribing to an affordable identity protection service. There are many options to choose from and with identity theft affecting nearly 10 million Americans everyday.
