Being Smart with $$ -- What to Know About the Equifax Data Breach

You have likely heard on the news about the Equifax data breach which may have caused important personal information to be released to online thieves and may affect virtually all adult Americans. The information released may have included Social Security numbers, birth dates, addresses and possibly even driver’s license numbers.

Equifax is offering free credit monitoring services for one year but this may not be enough. Thieves could easily hold onto your information and wait to use it a year or more from now. Additionally, signing up for the service may affect your ability to receive restitution from the company. Equifax has set up a website where consumers can see if their information was compromised, but the buzz is that the information provided may be less than useful or certain. Consumers need to remain vigilant. The free monitoring service is called TrustedID Premier if you would like to take advantage of it.

What to do:

Get your free annual credit report from each of the three major credit companies. Review one report every four months to verify that no unusual activity has occurred in your name. Experian, TransUnion and Equifax are the three major credit bureaus.

Regularly check your credit card and bank statements for any inconsistencies. Thieves may try small transactions first to see if they get noticed before going for larger ones.  Even without a data breach, anyone with your bank account and routing numbers (such as anyone with one of your checks) could try to transfer funds from your account.  

Set up an online Social Security account.  If you do it, thieves can’t beat you to it and apply for YOUR benefits.  www.ssa.gov/myaccount  

File your taxes early. If you do, then thieves can't file a fake return and steal your refund.

You have the option to freeze your credit files however each time you personally apply for credit you will need to unfreeze access and then refreeze it after the fact. And each time may result in a fee of $5 to $10. You will need to contact each of the three credit bureaus (possibly even a fourth called Innovis) and once you complete the process they can only release your information to companies that already have you as a customer. You will have to save a PIN number in order to unfreeze your credit in the future which can take 24 hours and may prove inconvenient when applying for credit. But also consider that as thieves may have quite a bit of information on you, it is not inconceivable they could find a way unfreeze your files so you must continue to monitor your credit and not be lulled into a sense of complacency.

You can also request fraud alerts from the three credit bureaus which will indicate when someone has tried to open up a new account in your name. When you contact one of the three credit agencies, they will notify the other two. A fraud alert will last for 90 days and can be renewed.

You may choose to sign up for a credit monitoring service such as LifeLock or Experian CreditWorks
which will alert you anytime there is a change to your credit report. However, these services can be very pricey costing $100 per year for a limited service and up to $300 a year for a premium service. Critics of the services say you can do the monitoring yourself for free by watching your credit card and bank statements and getting your free credit reports three times a year. Additionally, while freezing your credit may be inconvenient and result in a fee each time you freeze or unfreeze, the cost of doing so may be far less than paying the annual cost of a credit monitoring service. A plus to the credit monitoring services is the inclusion of insurance that may reimburse you for certain losses and pay for certain legal bills if you become a victim of identity theft.  It should be noted that this insurance is often secondary to other coverage you may already have like homeowners insurance and protection offered by credit card companies for fraudulent charges. 

It all comes down to personal choice and how much time you believe you can commit to the process of protecting your identity. Unfortunately, we live in an age where your information can be used against you and you must be vigilant to protect yourself.