Why I paid for Credit Monitoring and Fraud Alert due to the Equifax data Breach:
The equifax data breach that was announced this year is a nightmare for consumers and it cannot be ignored. In this post, I will explain how you can check to see if you’ve been affected by the breach: 147M people have been. In addition, I will review the best options of how to protect yourself from fraud, stolen identity, and credit card fraud.
- Affiliate Disclosure: This article contains affiliate links to companies I partner with. I strive to do business with highly rated, quality companies.
What Happened: Equifax data breach
The credit reporting company announced in September that the personal information of 145.5 million consumers had been compromised now referred to as the Equifax data breach. It originally said that the information accessed included names, Social Security numbers, birth dates, addresses and – in some cases – driver’s license numbers and credit card numbers.
It also said some consumers’ credit card numbers were among the information exposed, as well as the personal information from thousands of dispute documents.
However, Atlanta-based Equifax recently disclosed in a document submitted to the Senate Banking Committee, that a forensic investigation found criminals accessed other information from company records.
According to the document, provided to The Associated Press by Sen. Elizabeth Warren‘s office, that included tax identification numbers, email addresses and phone numbers. Finer details, such as the expiration dates for credit cards or issuing states for driver’s licenses, were also included in the list.
The equifax data breach is therefore much more serious than was reported.
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Equifax is one of three credit reporting agencies. Equifax, experian, and transunion produce your credit report or credit score. They basically control your FICO score, which can impact your credit and your ability to qualify for credit cards, auto loans, and getting a mortgage.
The equifax databreach is quite serious. It exposed crucial pieces of personal data that criminals could use to commit identity theft, from Social Security numbers and birth dates to address histories and legal names.
How to check if you’ve been affected in the equifax data breach.
Visit the equifax data breach website.
Once you’re there, look for the tab that says, “Potential Impact”
It will lead to a page that will ask for part of your social security number as well as your name. It will then tell you if you have been affected by the data breach.
Check your credit:
I would suggest you check your credit score periodically. Credit Sesame is free to use and only takes about 90 seconds to check a credit score. Once you get your report, check for errors. Finding and correcting just one error could give your credit score a significant boost.
Credit Monitoring:
Equifax suggests you sign up for credit file monitoring and identity theft protection. It is providing free service for one year through TrustedID Premier — whether or not you’ve been affected by the breach.
Be Warned: If you sign up for this “free” service, you could be giving up your rights on a future settlement with the company. I do not think this is a smart decision at all.
Options:
According to Equifax, my credit was affected by this breach. If yours was impacted, you should be checking your credit more frequently to make sure that no fraud has taken place. It is pretty easy to get a free credit report online or from a reputable credit card company. I will be checking my credit score every few months from now on.
Freeze Credit Report:
One inexpensive option is to freeze your credit report. You can protect yourself by immediately placing fraud alerts on your credit reports, according to credit experts. This means that a lender must contact you to verify your identity before it issues a credit card in your name. You can place an alert on your report for free by contacting one of the credit agencies, which is required to notify the other two.
The credit freeze lasts for 90 days and can be renewed.
According to financial expert, Dave Ramsey, about 80% of credit card companies like Mastercard and Visa will not pull your credit report before issuing a new credit card. So, there is still risk of identity theft even if you get a credit freeze. This is why it’s important to keep checking your credit score even if you aren’t involved in this data breach.
Identity Theft Protection
Dave Ramsey recommended paying for identity theft protection through Zander Insurance. They offer a specific case worker for id theft. The cost is $75. Id theft protection is not cheap.
This is the option I chose. (I have no affiliate relationship with Zander Insurance.)
The other credit reporting companies (Experian, TransUnion, and Equifax) also offer identity theft protection coverage.
I researched a service from MfFico.com. And even though they offered me a hefty commission for sending my readers to their site, I cannot endorse their theft protection service. In my opinion, the Zander product is just as good at a substantially discounted price. Again, I receive no compensation from Zander Insurance.
The Federal Trade Commission’s website, www.ftc.gov/idtheft, offers information about how to protect yourself against fraud.
Conclusion:
I believe this is a big wakeup call for consumers about the likelihood of id theft. There are options like a credit freeze or more extensive solutions like buying identity theft protection. But, beware of companies that charge too much for the same service.
Either way it is our responsibility to check our own credit reports to make sure that no one has committed id theft using our social security numbers to get new credit cards or other activity. This is the unfortunate reality of the situation.
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My husband and I put a security freeze on our credit reports, which took about 30 minutes and cost a total of $30. I regularly check my own credit report, but this was a good reminder to do it again. CreditKarma is also a good resource: it’s free, and it’s reports have become increasingly specific over time.
Thanks for the post. I had been ignoring this but you make a good case to at least check if I was affected.
Yikes! Sorry you were affected by this breach; with nearly half of the country potentially being affected by this breach, the odds are not in our favor 🙁
I hustled to place a credit freeze with all three national credit reporting agencies, but I hadn’t given much thought to identity theft insurance. Have you done any more research or even purchased insurance since publishing this post? I’d be curious to hear more about that.
Thanks. Yes, I purchased the Zander insurance Id protection. It was $75, which compared to the freeze option seemed like a decent value. It comes with a case worker and $1M in insurance.