Should You Buy Identity Theft Insurance?
In an age when at least nine million people become new identity theft victims every year, should you buy identity theft insurance? The short answer is that it is entirely up to you. However, in the fight against identity thieves, every effort helps whether it is enrolling in identity theft protection timely reviews of your credit reports, careful spending habits and other proactive methods of protecting your identity. As the old saying goes, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”
Victims of identity theft spend hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars out of their own pockets trying to reclaim their creditworthiness and clear their names of fraud. Identity theft is a hole that that takes years of phone calls, letters and incredible frustration to climb out of, and for many victims, the nightmare never really ends. Subscribing to identity theft protection services is up to you, but for a small monthly investment, you can enjoy the following benefits:
•An Identity Health Score calculated by factoring many different personal aspects to determine fraud probability, which enables you to see and address risks
•Identity Monitoring which identifies “events” (names, aliases, addresses, telephone numbers and Social Security numbers) associated with the Member’s identity
•Breach Alert Monitoring which alerts Members when a potentially dangerous data breach occurs that could include the Member’s personal information
•Cyber Monitoring which constantly monitors the Web for a Member’s personal information to identify instances where this information is being sold to thieves
•Email and Text Alerts which alert Members when the system identifies events involving their information
•Document Recovery Service which provides very helpful templates for recording and safely storing vital personal documents in case of loss or theft, providing professional assistance for canceling accounts, obtaining new credit cards and other time-saving services
•Identity Theft Insurance which enables Members to be eligible for up to $25,000 coverage for the legal and ancillary costs of conducting a recovery; available in most locations except where prohibited by law
• Many other Member identity theft protection benefits and services
Buying identity theft insurance can be very helpful in the event that someone steals your identity. This helps members when they need it the most: in the days, weeks and months following an identity theft.
