Identity Theft Monitoring and Insurance Plans

In my last post I discussed identity theft – what it is and how to prevent it.

What about identity theft monitoring or insurance? Does it make sense to purchase it?

An important note up front – no product or company can protect you from having your information stolen. The most common way your data is stolen is through data breaches. If you have a Yahoo account, for example, some of your data has already been stolen and, as we have learned recently, it has probably been sold several times over.

That doesn’t mean there aren’t steps you can take to secure your information better (see last post for ideas), but having identity theft “insurance” doesn’t prevent your data from being stolen any more than having auto insurance keeps you from being involved in an accident.

Let’s take a look at each of the various types of identity theft protection – monitoring, insurance and recovery.

MONITORING SERVICES

Monitoring services alert you when someone else might be using your information. Services generally include:

  • Tracking activity on your credit report
  • Sending you an alert when your personal information (bank account, Social Security number, driver’s license number, passport or medical ID) is being used
  • Access to credit reports and/or scores

No company or service can monitor all activity on all websites and merchants, but most of these companies do their best to monitor your personal information at as many places as possible.

IDENTITY THEFT INSURANCE

Identity theft insurance pays for out-of-pocket expenses incurred for recovery, which may include:

  • Postage, copying and notary fees
  • Less often, lost wages and legal fees

A few important notes about identity theft insurance:

  • This type of insurance almost never covers stolen money or other financial losses
  • There is generally a deductible
  • There is no payout if the loss is covered by any other types of insurance, such as homeowner’s or renter’s insurance
  • The majority of people who are involved in identity theft have almost no out-of-pocket losses. Most people pay little to nothing to copy or print things at home, postage is cheap and notary services are usually free at your bank. By the time your deductible kicks in you are unlikely to gain anything.

RECOVERY SERVICES

Recovery services help you deal with the effects of identity theft after it happens. Services generally include:

  • Assigning a case manager to help you work through the process
    • With some plans you actually grant authority for the case manager to act in your name, with others they guide you through the process
  • Placing a fraud alert on your credit file
  • Placing a security freeze on your credit file
  • Helping you prepare letters to send to collectors
  • Closing any tampered or fake accounts and opening new ones

Let’s take a look at two specific companies – LifeLock and Zander Insurance.

LifeLock[i]

Standard protection is $10 a month or $109 annually. Prices go up to $29.95 a month for premium services.

Basic services include:

  • Website surveillance
  • Cancel credit cards if stolen
  • Send alerts when your information is being used
  • Replace stolen funds up to $250,000 (only what the bank won’t replace)
  • Spend up to $1,000,000 on lawyers, accountants or others to restore your previous status

Zander Insurance

Zander is $75 year ($6.76 a month) for an individual or $145 a year ($13 a month) for family protection.

Zander operates their protection plan on the premise that financial identity theft is only one of more than 15 types of identity theft. There is also Social Security, criminal, employment, medical, tax refund and other types of fraud, many of which won’t be discovered by monitoring. In many cases you won’t know you have been a victim until you get a letter from the IRS or a doctor bill or even a warrant for your arrest.

Their focus is on identity theft recovery. Services provided include:

  • Up to $1,000,000 reimbursement for any stolen bank funds or unauthorized electronic funds transfer (only what the bank won’t replace)
  • Unlimited legal fees if needed
  • $0 deductible
  • Contact banks, bureaus, insurance companies and doctors for you

What I Recommend

No strategy is perfect, but this is my plan:

  • Use CreditKarma.com for monitoring (they send me an e-mail anytime something changes on my credit report)
  • Use YNAB (youneedabudget.com) to review my bank and credit card transactions daily
  • Shred any documents with financial or personal information
  • Use https://www.optoutprescreen.com/ to stop receiving most pre-screened credit card offers
  • Put a security freeze on my credit bureau reports
  • Check one credit report every 4 months on annualcreditreport.com
  • Copy the front and back of all cards in my wallet
  • Use a service such as LastPass.com to manage and use different, secure passwords on each website
  • If my wallet is stolen or I am a victim of a breach place a 90-day fraud alert on my credit bureau accounts
  • Sign up for Zander’s plan for recovery services (I believe it is worth the $145 a year for the services they will provide)

If you have taken all of these steps but choose not to sign up for recovery services, the FTC has created a new website that will help you recover. It generates pre-filled letters and walks you through exactly what you need to do to recover. You can find the website at http://www.identitytheft.gov.

 

 

Identity Theft Protection

[i] For both LifeLock and Zander be sure to review their services before signing up. Services may have changed since this article was written.

Share this:
Facebooktwitterpinterestlinkedinmail

Identity Theft is Not a Joke Jim!

Watch this first:

Identity theft really is a problem that affects millions of people each year. It causes untold numbers of hours and dollars to fix the problems.

While it is impossible to stop all identity theft, there are some simple steps you can take to protect yourself better.

Shred Documents with Your Personal Information

You should shred any document from a financial institution, any pre-approved credit card offers, and any other documents with your personal information on it. Shredders that shred in long strips don’t work – thieves can tape together the strips (and will tape them together) and get your information or apply for credit. Some sites suggest simply tearing up and throwing away pre-approved credit card offers. Does that work? Check out this site for your answer:

http://www.cockeyed.com/citizen/creditcard/application.shtml

Use a cross-cut shredder to make sure it is fully destroyed.

Opt-out of Receiving Pre-Screened Credit Card Offers

On the website https://www.optoutprescreen.com/ you can opt-out of receiving pre-approved credit card offers. Eliminating these from your mailbox is one less thing for thieves to be able to steal.

Protect Your Social Security Number

Don’t carry anything with your Social Security number printed on it. Check your wallet or purse to see if you are carrying your social security card OR any other item with your Social Security number printed on it. Thieves really only need this one piece of information to steal your identity, so taking steps to keep it safe will help you keep your identity safe.

Don’t reply to “Phishing” E-mails

Never reply to e-mails for requests for any personal information, even if it looks like it is coming from your bank. Your bank will never request personal information via e-mail.

Put a Credit Freeze on Your Credit Report

One of the most effective things you can do to protect your identity is to freeze your credit. A credit freeze prevents the information in your credit file from being reported to anyone.

If a thief does steal your identity they can’t open new credit because your record is frozen. This will also prevent you from opening new credit unless you plan ahead and “unthaw” your credit report for a period of time.  Credit freezes and unthaws do cost money, but think of the money spent like an insurance policy. Here are the websites to freeze your credit report:

https://www.freeze.equifax.com/Freeze/jsp/SFF_PersonalIDInfo.jsp

https://freeze.transunion.com/sf/securityFreeze/landingPage.jsp

http://www.experian.com/consumer/security_freeze.html

Check Your Credit Report

It is important that you check your credit report on a regular basis. You can get one free copy of each of your credit reports annually by visiting www.annualcreditreport.com. A strategy I use is to check one of the reports every 4 months – that way I am checking it out on a regular basis. If there are any errors or accounts you don’t recognize you need to take steps right away to get it taken care of.

Pay with Cash

A while back I got a call at 7:30 in the morning on a Saturday from the Fraud Department at my bank. My credit card number had been used for an online purchase that seemed uncharacteristic (it was a Jewish dating site), and the Fraud Department was calling to find out if my wife or I had used our card there. We had not, so they immediately closed down the card and issued a new number. When we tried to figure out how it happened we realized that the most likely scenario was when we used our debit card the last time we ate out. When the waiter/waitress takes your card and disappears with it for 2-3 minutes it is easy for them to snap a photo of the front and back using their cell phone. We now pay with cash anytime we eat out.

To review, you can help prevent identity theft I recommend that you:

  • Shred documents with your personal information
  • Opt-out of receiving pre-screened credit card offers
  • Protect your Social Security number
  • Don’t reply to “Phishing” e-mails
  • Put a credit freeze on your credit report
  • Check your credit report
  • Pay with cash

What about identity theft insurance? Is it worth the cost? I’ll review what it is and my opinion about it in my next post.

 

Share this:
Facebooktwitterpinterestlinkedinmail

How to Protect Yourself from Banking Fraud

wellsfargoBy now you’ve probably heard about Wells Fargo and the $190 million fine they are being issued because their employees created more than 2 million unwanted deposit accounts and credit cards for their customers. Because of the scandal 5,300 employees have lost their jobs. Wells Fargo customers have paid hundreds of thousands of dollars in fees for these unwanted accounts.

Why did the employees create fake accounts?

The employees are paid an incentive for every new account or credit card they opened. They might get $3 for signing someone up for online banking, or $5 to open a savings account, or $20 if they open a new credit card. Imagine the incentive there – if an employee making minimum wage could open 2-3 new cards a day, that makes a big difference in how much they take home.

How did so many accounts get opened without customer’s knowing about it?

Some customers did notice, and they would get the accounts closed. Others probably noticed, but didn’t take the time to get them closed. Others probably didn’t notice it. Far too many people don’t really pay attention to their accounts or even their balances.

Let’s put a few things in perspective

  • 5,300 employees are a tiny portion of Wells Fargo’s workforce. They have 265,000 employees, so 5,300 is only 2% of their work force. Also, the firings took place over several years, not just today as most news stories are indicating. The majority of Wells Fargo employees are honest and wouldn’t do something like this. Will they encourage you to open a credit card? Sure. They might take home $20 if they can convince you, but most of them would never dream of opening one up for you after you said you weren’t interested.
  • $190 million means nothing to Wells Fargo. They are worth $250 billion, so $190 million is only .076% of the bank’s net worth. If you have a net worth of $200,000 a fine of .076% would be $152. Annoying? Sure. But it isn’t going to cause any trouble to your budget or your net worth. Some people have asked if the fine is high enough. It probably isn’t.
  • Wells Fargo has agreed to change their sales practices and provide more oversight, and anyone who paid fines or fees will receive a full refund.
  • Many banks offer their employees these types of incentives. The more accounts a person has with a bank the more tied in they are, and the harder it is to leave. Employees are incentivized for helping tie you in with that bank for life.

What can you do to protect yourself?

There are a few simple steps you can take:

  • Watch your accounts. Be sure to check your accounts regularly to make sure nothing is being charged or added to your accounts.
  • Keep things simple. You don’t need 12 accounts at 9 different banks in the area. You should have one main bank. If you have little accounts open at other banks because you got a free toaster for opening an account, get them closed.
  • Switch to a local credit union. Credit unions are owned by their members, and they charge fewer and lower fees and will give you better rates on loans. You can also get to know the managers. Most of them are happy to meet with their members and will help you out if there is a problem.
  • There is no reason for you to pay any maintenance fees on your checking or savings accounts. There are plenty of credit unions and banks that have free checking and savings accounts with no minimum balance requirements and no limit on the number of transactions you can make per month.

I encourage you to be proactive about your banking by taking these simple steps to protect yourself.

And if you have a Wells Fargo account, pull up your online banking and make sure no accounts were opened for you that you didn’t want or ask for. Check for fines and fees you shouldn’t have paid. They will be contacting their customers to let them know how to get a refund.

 

Picture credit: http://therealdeal.com/issues_articles/wells-fargo-go-go/

Share this:
Facebooktwitterpinterestlinkedinmail