Identity theft/credit monitoring services

[NewDay1]

Appreciated a response to one of my posts about Credit Karma for free credit monitoring.  Never heard of it before.

I use Lifelock and spend $215 a year for monitoring services.

How do you all approach identity theft protection, etc? 

[Frankies Girl]

Lifelock is a joke. I had it several times over the years and they don't really do much of anything. They won't prevent things from happening, mostly they'll tell you waaaay after the fact. Maybe they've improved but from my experience, they were lame and useless, so felt REALLY stupid paying for their "services."

MANY years ago, had mine/husband's entire ID stolen. Twice. Different incidents several years apart. One due to buying a car at a stupid national dealership, and much later had a C-level accounting person lose (likely was drunk) his work laptop in a taxi after a conference, so the company paid for Lifelock for all employees for 1 year after.


I don't pay anything now because I know how this crap works.  ALL your info is already out there - likely on many darkweb lists. Paying for some company to tell you "all clear" every month is false security. You need to watch it yourself, and it's actually pretty easy.

I have Mint to monitor my own existing accounts. I do this anyway to check into spending/budgeting stuff, but I see EVERY charge/deposit/transfer/selloff... easy. Credit Karma is also really great just for personal monitoring.
I have frozen all major credit reporting agencies. It's all free to freeze/unfreeze now anyway.
I have registered/claimed my SS account online.
I pull my free credit reports each year (spaced out).
I file my taxes the instant I get all my papers in, and I have a pin to file with.

[GizmoTX]

I have Mint to monitor my own existing accounts. I do this anyway to check into spending/budgeting stuff, but I see EVERY charge/deposit/transfer/selloff... easy. Credit Karma is also really great just for personal monitoring.
I have frozen all major credit reporting agencies. It's all free to freeze/unfreeze now anyway.
I have registered/claimed my SS account online.
I pull my free credit reports each year (spaced out).
I file my taxes the instant I get all my papers in, and I have a pin to file with.

We do all of the above, including Credit Karma, except I use YNAB (You Need A Budget) instead of Mint to plan as well as see past spending. In addition:
We use a locking mailbox to prevent mail theft.
We have as many bills paperless as possible & pay them online.
We don’t carry checks & write as few as possible.
We only use a debit card for cash.

[soccerluvof4]

Pretty much the same as the other two. We use mint and use credit cards that have instant alert of use on the cell phone.