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Should I Sign up for One of Those Credit Card Programs?
You’ve probably seen the advertisements that Visa,
MasterCard and Discover have that offer to protect from
identity and credit card theft. You’ve probably wondered
if those are worthwhile. For instance, Discover offers a
program, “Identity Theft Protection”, which costs $9.99
per month.
We have listed here what such credit card “protection
programs” include. From what you have learned so far in
this book, see if you can figure out the limitations of
these programs:
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Telling you your credit score every 3 months
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A copy of your Equifax credit report every 3 months,
with a comprehensive summary of what’s changed.
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Daily monitoring of your credit file for changes that
might be indicators that identity theft has occurred.
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A free 3-in-1 upgrade that give you credit reports from
all 3 credit bureaus (Equifax, TransUnion and Experian.)
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Unlimited access to a Credit Analyzer that allows you to
run “What if” scenarios so that you can make good
decisions about credit.
What did you notice about this program? Here are a
couple of major limitations:
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Not one single thing in it is geared toward prevention.
All that any of it does is alert you to the fact that
your identity has already been stolen. All the credit
card’s program does is monitor activity—activity that
happens after the thieves have stolen your identity.
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It only recognizes one form of identity theft – your
credit. What about all of those other issues we
discussed – Social Security, Drivers License, medical,
Health records/insurance, etc.?
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What about the help you will need from attorneys to
restore your credit and resolve issues people may claim
against you, even though they’re not valid, such as
fraud, crimes, financial commitments, tax issues, etc.?
Don’t waste your money on credit card programs that
cost too much and do too little. Again, if you are
interested in finding out what our research found to be
a much more thorough service with a similar fee you can:
E-mail us for an identity theft protection referral
Or
Visit our recommended identity theft protection service
provider.
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