LifeLock, And Other Options
With so many different identity theft protection companies available to consumers, choosing the right company can be a heavy burden. However, falling victim to identity theft and having to spend countless hours to clear your good name can be an even heavier burden. When it comes to choosing an identity theft protection company, it is important to weigh the pros and cons of each provider before choosing a company that is right for you and your family. LifeLock, an identity theft protection company, has time and time again outweighed the competition when it comes to protecting its members against identity theft.
To begin with, one pro of LifeLock is that they offer child identity theft protection services. At this time, LifeLock is the only company to offer credit checks and monitoring services for a member’s child who is under the age of 15. With the number of child identity thefts growing each year, LifeLock is leading the market in providing this needed service.
Pro number Two: While most identity theft monitoring services provide protection from identity theft, LifeLock’s services work to prevent identity theft from occurring in the first place. LifeLock’s identity prevention services include placing fraud alerts on your credit files, monitoring the internet for black market activity regarding the illegal use of credit card numbers and social security numbers through their eRecon services; and detecting when a member’s address has been illegally changed in national databases through their TrueAddress services.
A further pro of using LifeLock services is that LifeLock reduces the amount of access thieves have to your personal information by stopping pre-approved credit card offers that come in the mail and curtailing the number of telemarketing calls received. Stealing identifying information from your mail box or trash is a popular way for identity thieves to steal your personal information, not to mention using Pretexting scams to gather your credit card information by phone. LifeLock not only prevents identity theft by reducing the amount of access thieves have to your personal information; they also reduce the amount of junk mail you receive. Who wouldn’t count that as a pro!
Con number One and Only: Although LifeLock pulls credit reports annually, which is a great safeguard against unauthorized issuing of credit or loans, they do not perform daily scans of a member’s credit report and only send credit reports annually. Other theft identity services send member’s their credit reports on a quarterly basis. In addition, LifeLock does not provide members with their FICA scores which give the member an idea of how they measure-up when it comes to their credit report. However, LifeLock does have plans to add this to their list of services in the near future.
Lastly, one of the best pros to using LifeLock is their $1,000,000 total service guarantee. Because thieves will inevitably find “a way around the system,” there may be a day when a thief may find a way around LifeLock’s system. If this happens to a LifeLock member, LifeLock will provide attorneys, investigators, accountants, case managers, etc. to restore the member’s good name and credit. In addition, if the member loses money as a result of the theft, LifeLock will reimburse the amount lost.
When it comes to weighing the pros and cons of using LifeLock, the scales are tipped towards the pros. LifeLock offers some of the most comprehensive identity theft protection and prevention services available. Therefore, when deciding which identity theft protection company is right for you and your family, it is clear that LifeLock’s identity theft protection services will certainly outweigh the competition.