Community Chat

[Qwackertoo]

On 2/8/2015 corita said:

On 2/8/2015 millieshops said:

One of the problems with so many of the so-called protections is that they inform you after the fact - that can be helpful, but if it doesn't prevent fake transactions, it's not worth a whole lot of money.

I try to do my own checking on my financial accounts and my cards - and I do have freezes on my credit accounts. Still, it is scary because the thieves are stealing for a living - they don't do this after earning legal money elsewhere. That means they have 40, 50 or more hours a week to steal from us.

Millie - I have been interested in "freezing" credit accounts. Where can I go to get more info??? I have asked several people and they had never heard of it...TIA

not Millie but here ya go . . . came across this

Freezing Your Credit Report at Each Credit Bureau

Visit each credit bureau’s site for the security freeze mailing address and fee schedule for your state.

• Equifax: Freeze Your Equifax Credit Report
• Experian: Freeze Your Experian Credit Report
• TransUnion: Freeze Your TransUnion Credit Report

edited to clean up the html

[Lynnj]

Personally, I think that services like this are just as bad as the hackers that get into your accounts and steal. These companies are charging money for things that you can so easily do yourself. How hard is it to logon to your account online to check current balance and recent transactions. I know of no financial institution (bank/credit card, etc) that wouldn't work with you to replace funds that were proven to be fraudulently stolen.

This Costco service is $10/month. In 12 months, that $120. Times how many years (if you stayed in the program). Thats ridiculous. They are stealing from you just for charging for this service. I love Costco, and this has nothing to do with them, rather the companies that offer these services and charge for them.

Frankly, in the time it took me to type this post, I could have checked several of my accounts online.

[lovesrecess]

We have had LifeLock for four years and had one time they really saved us from a possible identity theft problem. Well worth the money IMO

[Junebug54]

Doesn't it make one wonder why we the victim has to buy protection from scammers when it is proven that a hack was made on a huge company?? Why should we have to spend time and money to defend ourselves? I think I will take my chances.

[OnlyShopsOnline]

I thought about the protection from Costco. But then I did some research on the company that runs the service, and they got very poor reviews.

[Qwackertoo]

On 2/8/2015 Lynnj said:

Personally, I think that services like this are just as bad as the hackers that get into your accounts and steal. These companies are charging money for things that you can so easily do yourself. How hard is it to logon to your account online to check current balance and recent transactions. I know of no financial institution (bank/credit card, etc) that wouldn't work with you to replace funds that were proven to be fraudulently stolen.

This Costco service is $10/month. In 12 months, that $120. Times how many years (if you stayed in the program). Thats ridiculous. They are stealing from you just for charging for this service. I love Costco, and this has nothing to do with them, rather the companies that offer these services and charge for them.

Frankly, in the time it took me to type this post, I could have checked several of my accounts online.

I think one is paying for the convenience for a good part of the reason. The one million is a nice addition to the coverage . . . to protect ones identity 120.00 a year is not a huge price tag for a large portfolio . . . but like I posted above with the Vanguard and Fidelity protection guarantees . . .

Locking, unlocking, freezing and unfreezing are expensive IF you have the need to do it often.. Which I wouldn't.

And yes, just like cell, internet & cable . . . 3500.00 a year and that is a low price, x's 10 years is 35,000.00 . . . when compared to 1200.00 over same time to protect your accounts, the cost isn't that outrageous. A million dollar coverage is not something you can do for yourself so easily . . . yes most institutions will replace those monies but it might be nice to have a Plan B.

We are very careful with our data but those crooks are just getting slicker by the day. So yes, it does worry me. Which is why I'm researching policies at brokerage, I know policies with my credit cards, bank and credit union accounts.

When I was looking at one of the credit reporting sites earlier, signing up for their account, so you can lock and unlock your credit account was like 29.95 per MONTH. I don't know what else they do for that money but YIKES and IF you had to do it with all three agencies, the 9.99 a month for the Costco program looks more reasonable.

I'm just trying to determine IF we really & truly need it. Or even just the convenience of it.

Earlier this afternoon I read the link the dooBdoo posted over on the other forum about Life Lock etc. and many very nice posts on that thread and saw where someone posted about someone losing their brokerage accounts which set off alarm bells. But I think we're safe on that . . . well not @ Vanguard with 529's which I find strange . . .but I'll look into that further.

So many details. So much fine print.

edited to change Equifax fee from 29.95 yearly to MONTHLY. Yikes.

http://www.equifax.com/family-identity-protection/

[Lynnj]

Qwackertoo (and anyone else reading along) I would research benefits of using a company like this looking at the reverse angle - that is - what are your rights with financial institutions and credit card companies, if someone hacked your account or stole your identity. Maybe that will help to understand that if this were to happen, you will be restored to where you were before it happened. Paying an alert company isn't going to make that recovery any faster.

Start here - http://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0233-statement-rights-identity-theft-victims

These companies will only alert you that something happened. That will be after the fact. They will not file all of the reports and complete paper work associated with each institution where your accounts were compromised.

As for cards and bank accounts, the companies will not charge you to close the account that was attacked, open a new account, and transfer (any remaining) funds into the new account. They will also replace the funds that were stolen, after a proper investigation has been completed to prove it was a hacking or identity theft. Many financial institutions will provisionally credit your account those funds while the investigation is going on. They are liable for the funds, falling under cyber crimes, thats why they give you funds back. They are at fault for not protecting your information.

These alert companies say they will give you your money back. Well, where do you think they are getting the money? From the same place you will get the money if you didn't use them in the first place. They will contact the bank, of behalf of you, and get the money they gave to you. Like I said above, most financial institutions will provisionally credit your account almost immediately. So what is the difference if you get the money directly from the bank, or from one of these alert companies? You will already be contacting the bank to close the account, you can get the provisional credit at the same time.

Freezing an account is different, and yes, there are charges associated with that. Personally, if I had activity on my account occur that was not authorized by me, I would close the account. Why would I freeze it, open it later, and potentially let the hacker access my account again? People freeze accounts for other reasons than hacking or identity theft.

So all they are going to do is contact you to tell you you've been hacked, and give you some money. You will still need to connect with all the places you have accounts to deal with reporting the fraud (and changing accounts, if you decide). You will need to file fraud reports with the police and government. You will be faxing/sending copies of reports to everywhere.

In the end you'll do whatever you feel is right for you to do. Thats fine if it provides some sort of piece of mind. But understand that these alert companies aren't doing anything so special, and nothing that you can't easily do yourself. As far as recovering stolen funds, and opening/closing hacked accounts, thats all stuff you'll need to do regardless if you pay a service or not.

[Lynnj]

And one more thing - comparing the ongoing cost to paying a service like this to the cost of something like cable/phone/internet is not the same. Cable/phone/internet are not services that you can provide for yourself. Yes, there are alternative approaches that make that cost cheaper, or just cut out those services altogether.

Paying an alert company is paying for a service that you can do yourself, very easily. You cannot do cable/phone/internet for yourself.

[Qwackertoo]

Thanks for the additional info Lynnj.

I meant ""freezing"" your credit report files at each of the three credit bureaus. Not a credit card or checking account or such. So thieves can't open new accounts in your name when they go for a credit check . . . frozen . . . so they can't open the fraudulent account.

[Lynnj]

On 2/8/2015 Qwackertoo said:

Thanks for the additional info Lynnj.

I meant "freezing" your credit report files at each of the three credit bureaus. Not a credit card or checking account or such. So thieves can't open new accounts in your name when they go for a credit check . . . frozen . . . so they can't open the fraudulent account.

Oh I see. Thanks for explaining that further. Yes, I don't think that you can avoid that...even if you sign with a credit alert company? But, maybe they do offer that charge as a service for signing. I've never research that far with this type of a company. Even still, is that cost worth $120/year? Thats up to you to decide.