Quote:
Originally Posted by Michael G.
Who has their credit frozen, and is it a good idea?
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Michael, besides the credit freezes on the "4" sites as mentioned,
I also obtained a
AAA Mastercard (no annual fee) which comes with ID theft protection as an added benefit. You load selected personal information and the service searches the DARK web to see if any of this information is available for sale and alerts you if something is found. We've loaded not only our 2 email addresses (but our kids also), passport numbers, driver's license, checking account #, phone numbers, medical ID #, and much more. Amazingly, it's the kids of whom I get alerts that they have a website account / password exposed.
I also have a subscription to
Norton 360 antivirus and that comes with ID monitoring. It's not as full featured as the AAA M/C. It also comes with Privacy Monitor and tells you how much of YOU is out in the internet such as your age, name, addresses (both current and past), telephone numbers and on and on. You can elect to subscribe to their service to trying to delete yourself from the internet. I have elected not to do that.
Michael, I also recommend turning on 2-factor authentication for your accounts. When you first log in, it will send a code to your phone. After that, it saves a cookie and you don't have to do it again unless you clear your cache. It's never happened to me yet, but I'd freak out if Chase sent a verification code to my phone. I'd then know that something may be amiss.
As for the Credit freeze, it's not as big of pain as you may think. I may unfreeze my credit reports once every 18 months for something.
Best of luck for you.