so the past few days dh has had calls from our credit union and his cc acct for fraud activity. They posted $1 to test then bought or tried to buy something. I have gone on his other account to see if anything funny has happened and sure enough there was a chage for $10 he has it taken care of but now he and I are a little freaked out. I found a site that does the id protection for the family for $18 a ,month or $225 for the year. It has really good ratings but I am wodering if it is worth it. Do any of you have protection like this for you or your fam? Please let me know if this is a good road to go down or just monitor it ourselves? TIA
thanks everyone, we do monitor our cards and bank statements but all of this has occured in the past 2 days. and FYI even though you may not have a cc your info is still out there for people to open up accts in your name. We dont give out our cc or ss info our bank and cc did not ask for us to give them the acct # they dont ask for that info. they have other security ?'s we have to answer like what was your high school gym teachers name. ?'s we had in place when we opened the acct.
I would go on Dave Ramsey's website and use his suggestions. I'd say if you know nothing at all about the company you are looking in to, I'd be hesitant. Dave Ramsey's suggestions are always good, and he is well known. Think about it long and hard before you choose one.
We don't have that protection, but we did have that experience. A few months ago our credit card company called us because there was activity with my card that looked suspicious. It turned out that most of it was OK, but there were a couple of things we couldn't account for. They canceled the card, issued us a new one, and now notify us by e-mail when there's the *least* suspicion of anything. I'd rather tell them, "Yes, we did make that transaction," than not know what's happening.
K.:
To be honest - i think they are all scams.
Actively viewing your credit cards (not having them!! :) ) and bank account daily is a good way to protect yourself.
I don't know who you bank with - but many banks offer a service like this for free.
Do NOT give your SSN or credit card # to anyone who calls you. Pull out your card and call the number on the back. Then you KNOW for SURE who you are talking to.
Do not give DOB or any other pertinent information...like on FB - use a different year of birth or none at all. Even put a totally different date on there.
Shred all of your bank statements that are more than 5 years old.
Shred credit card statements.
When a credit card expires - cut it up and put it in an envelope - take out 3 pieces and put in the trash one week - then wait a week or two and take a few more pieces out and put it in the trash....etc....
My cc company called me about suspicious activity and we canceled and replaced the card. No big.
My bank debit card number was used a few months back and the bank caught it and canceled the card before even talking to me. In a Walmart a charge was hand typed into the computer for $3 ish. The bank flagged the card, then called me, then reissued me a card.
Discover canceled us during a move. HTey were watching gas from NC to KY, IN, IL, MN then canceled it when we hit SD. I had forgotten to let them know we were moving to CA. .
I do not have anything special on my cards. But they all send me an email if there is a purchase of more than $100 at any time. Or if there is an increase of activity, something more than gas on Discover I usually get a call.
Check with your credit union first to see if they offer something similar.
(But if the crazies want to find you they will!)
Your bank should do it for free. Plus $18 x 12= $216...so the monthly plan is a better deal.
I wouldn't use a "site" for protection like that. Ask the credit union if they have something similar. A lot of times bank credit cards offer that service.
Dawn
Our bank monitors things quite closely for us. And they contact us with anything suspicious. You can always request a new card and/or account number, just in case, and they will make it happen.
And our insurance company offers a service for $25/year. If anything does happen, they take care of all of the hassling phone calls of having to cancel accounts and get new cards, etc.
As for the monthly service, I heard that the CEO of one of those companies bragged about how good the company was at securing everything (100% full proof, blah, blah, blah), then his bragging caught up to him and hackers stole his identity just to prove a point.
Good luck!!
