I don't think lifelock does anything you can't do yourself.
It may be worth paying for a credit monitoring service (I say that as someone who had their identity stolen and $50k or so of department store debt ran up in my name over the course of 2 days). The thing is, the sooner you are aware of a credit breach, the easier it is to clear up. I was alerted by a department store credit department (thieves used my real phone # for whatever reason) who thought it was suspicious I maxed out my card they day I applied for it. Many others were trying to contact me for the same reason - others were clueless when I called. But I probably tracked down all the cards within a month and just had to call and get a notarized signature for a few. Half the department stored credit cards were owned by one credit company - so made it even easier.
I had to sign up for credit monitoring to find all the cards and clean it all up, but for a long time I didn't really want to give it up. I appreciated how easy it was to clean up because I was alerted immediately. I think finding out many months later could have been much more hassle. (Then again, they used my real address and I Would have found them all within a couple of months, regardless). That said, I have since signed up for creditkarma.com. It's free. Not perfect, but has enough info that if I check it often (once a month at the least) it should be obvious if something is fishy. For one, it tells me how many cards I have and projects a FAKO score. Changes in either would be an indicator that something is fishy and maybe I should pull all 3 free credit bureau reports to see what is going on.
Of course, I have fraud alerts on all my credit bureau accounts which I will probably keep indefinitely to help prevent that type of experience again.
|