Millions of people are spending big bucks every year to protect their identify. Convincing marketing sure makes it seem like something you can’t live without but is it really necessary?
Credit expert, Al Bingham has watched what he calls scare tactics grow I-D theft protection into a billion-dollar industry. Al tells KSL-TV, “They go out there and scare consumers that they’ve got to protect their information.”
But Al says creative marketing is making it seem worse than it is and the Department of Justice agrees. They say less than one percent of households reported an unauthorized credit cards or tax information stolen.
But still the scare tactic is working and big credit bureaus like Transunion, Experian and Equifax say they will monitor new credit requests for you.
But instead of paying something else to do this, save yourself some money. You can request free credit reports from all three of the credit bureaus once a year. Al recommends staggering them every 4 months, this will allow you to monitor your own credit and save yourself big fees.
Another benefit many protection companies claim is identity theft reimbursement. The Federal Trade Commission says more than half of identity theft cases haven’t cost the victims any out of pocket expenses.
