Identity Theft Protection Buyers Guide

Identity Theft is on the rise and it is important that we protect ourselves from hackers and thieves. Identity Theft can happen by someone hacking into your computer, stealing your mail or by you not clearing your information from using a library computer or a public computer. Once someone has gotten a hold of your identity and starts to wrack up charges on credit cards or takes out credit cards with your name it is not going to easy to remove what they have done. There are many ways to ensure that this does not happen to you. There are Identity Theft Protection Services available to help you monitor your credit report and they will notify you of any alerts or threats that are made against your credit report. These companies such as LifeLock Identity Theft Protection Services, Equifax ID Patrol and IDENTITY GUARD Total Protection offer free credit reports and credit repair services and much more. These companies are designed to help consumers protect themselves.

LifeLock Identity Theft Protection

LifeLock Identity Theft Protection Services offers the consumer safe and secure ways to protect your identity from potential thieves. LifeLock will provide you with early emails and notifications if someone has tried to steal your identity as well as search the Internet for sites that are illegally selling your name and any of your private information. LifeLock Identity Theft Protection offers you some useful information such as a listing of any and all sex offenders that are currently living in your zip code. The company will also provide you with notifications of anyone who may be trying to secure a Payday Loan with your name, date of birth and your social security number. LifeLock Identity Theft Protection offers you 24 Hour Member Services, you can access your member portal online and have direct 24 hours a day 7 days a week access to the Member Service Representatives. The company can make a request on your behalf to have your name removed from any pre-approved credit card mailing lists. This can greatly cutback the risk of someone being able to open a credit card in your name. LifeLock offers Remediation as well. The company will provide a one million dollar guarantee. This works if you do become a victim of having your identity stolen while under the LifeLock Protection, they will help you repair your credit at their expense of up to one million dollars. In the event that your wallet is lost or stolen, the company will have their specialist cancel and help replace all of your contents inside of your wallet at the time of the theft. LifeLock offers two different packages the LifeLock and the LifeLock Command Center. With the LifeLock Plan you will get such services as eRecon which means that the company will search the Internet for any illegal selling, trading or buying of your personal information. With this plan you will also receive a request for a Free Annual Credit report and True Address, which will find any new address information being used with your name. The LifeLock Plan costs $ 10 a month and the LifeLock Command is $ 15 and that comes with Remediation, Protection and Detection Services.

Equifax ID Patrol

Equifax ID Patrol will monitor your credit file and will advise you on any changes that have been made to determine whether the activity is fraudulent. With this protection plan you can have access to your own Equifax Credit File so you can see what they are seeing. When you order the Equifax ID Patrol you will receive an Equifax Web Detect System, with this system you will receive alerts if your information is being traded or sold online. The benefits of the Web Detect is that the company will scan the web for any of your personal information including your Social Security Number and even up to 10 credit card accounts. You will receive email notification if any of your personal information shows up on any underground trading websites. With the Equifax ID Patrol you will receive a 3 in 1 Credit Report and an Unlimited Equifax Credit Reports. You will also receive 24/7 access to Identity Theft Resolution Specialist if needed. You will also receive Automatic Fraud Alerts. This feature will place a fraud alert on your credit report and it lets creditors know that someone has stolen your identity or there is a fraud threat. This will allow creditors and potential creditors to verify the information before issuing any additional credit. The Equifax ID Patrol is priced at $ 14.95, the $ 14.95 is a special price, and the regular price for this plan is $ 16.95. You will receive monitoring on all three credit reports; you will receive email and wireless alerts. With the ID Patrol Plan you will receive access to your Equifax Credit Report, 1,000,000 ID Theft Insurance, a Free 3 in I Credit Report and unlimited Equifax Credit Reports. You will receive 24/7 Customer Service and Online Disputes.

IDENTITY GUARD Total Protection

IDENTITY GUARD Total Protection offers the consumer a new way of identifying theft of your personal information. The company is offering a Free Identity Checkup as well as unlimited toll free customer service calls, there is someone there to answer every time. You will receive online tools to help you understand your credit and help you foresee financial future. You will also receive Lost Wallet Protection, this feature will allow IDENTITY GUARD Total Protection to help you cancel your stolen credit cards and receive access of up to $ 2000 from your bank accounts. IDENTITY GUARD Total Protection offers three different plans, the Watchful Eye, which is priced at $ 9.99, the Extra Caution, which is priced at $ 14.99, and the Total Protection Plan, which is priced at $ 17.99. Under the Watchful Eye Plan you will receive Credit Bureau Monitoring, Internet Surveillance and Credit Report and Credit Score. This plan also offers Identity Theft Loss Insurance Coverage up to $ 2,500. The Extra Caution Plan also offers Credit Bureau Monitoring, Internet Surveillance and Credit Report and Score. In addition to these programs you will receive Monitoring by 3 Credit Bureaus and a 3 in 1 Credit Report with Credit Score. The Identity Theft Loss Insurance Coverage up to $ 1,000,000. The Total Protection Plan offers everything the first two plans do but in addition, you will receive Identity Monitoring, Public Record Report and Monitoring, ID Vault, MOBILE LOCKBOX, Privacy Protection, Zone Alarm Internet Security Suite and Identity Theft Loss Insurance Coverage up to $ 1,000,000. Keeping track of your credit may not be the first thing that you think about every day. While we go online and throw away our mail there are people out there working on stealing our personal information. Most of the time the damage is done before we can do anything about it. Keeping track of your credit score and your credit report should be as important as balancing our checkbooks. You should monitor your credit report twice a year. Companies such as Equifax, Trans Union offer free credit reports once a year. You should also receive a copy of your credit score as well. By knowing your credit score you can keep track of your credit history. Most companies offering credit scores usually charge $ 7.95 to obtain the score but in the long run, wouldn’t it be cheaper to spend the $ 7.95 as opposed to the thousands of dollars you will spend on a bankruptcy lawyer or trying to repair the damage done by thieves.