Identity theft protection?

[MsPeacock]

Twice in the past year (and several times in prior years) organizations that have my 'sensitive' (e.g. SSN, DOB, financial informaiton, etc.) information have had significant security breaches. I am considering if I should sign-up for one of the protection plans - and if so, if anyone here has recommendations for any particular service. Thoughts of pro/con of using one?

[Insanity]

If the organization was breached, then you should verify whether they are going to provide you with monitoring.     

[MsPeacock]

If the organization was breached, then you should verify whether they are going to provide you with monitoring.   

No - they aren't going to. The only offer I had for monitoring was when Target had the breach, and that was only for some limited amount of time that they offered. One of the breaches was my employer and they are not offering monitoring.

[Insanity]

Wow.  That is horrid.  In general , I would recommend against it.  In all honesty, if you monitor your credit score (which various credit cards will do for free) you can see blips).

I probably wouldn't do it, but that is me.

[kpd905]

You can pull each of your three credit reports per year, so you could do one every 4 months just to watch for any unusual activity.

Sites like Credit Karma and Credit Sesame can also send you an email if there is a hard pull to your credit.

[Blonde Lawyer]

If your employer is the fed, they are providing monitoring, they were just slow with the announcement.

I have basic AAA and that comes with credit monitoring and $10k in insurance I believe. The plan is under $100 for me and my husband for the year.  I bought it for the car assistance but the ID theft plan is a bonus.

[MsPeacock]

Thank you everyone. I will start by pulling my own report now and make a note on my calendar. I guess my thought was w/ the protection/insurance is that if something were to happen you then have someone to assist w/ fixing and covering costs. I looked online and rates seemed to start at about $10 per month for really minimal service...

Good to know about the fed.

[Beardog]

I keep my credit locked down all the time with a credit freeze.  This wouldn't work for you if you want to open credit cards frequently, but for me it works great.  No one can get credit in my name with a credit freeze in place.  Every few years I have to lift the freeze in order to allow some company to see my credit score, i.e. refinancing a mortgage.  Here is a link to a description about how to do it and what the implications are:

http://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0497-credit-freeze-faqs