As individuals and companies remain vulnerable to identity theft and security breaches, it is always good to deploy some ID Protection Service to protect your data. Although all security breaches might not result in identity theft, it is always better to be safe than sorry by taking proper protection of your personal information spread across the internet. Several companies offer different kinds of services in identity protection to ensure that your personal information on the internet remains safe.
What is an identity protection service?
The services are often subscription-based and quite affordable, giving you complete peace of mind as it rids you of your worries about compromising your personal information even if there is any security breach. Remember that the identity theft protection services do not prevent security breaches but forewarn about possible danger so that you can block the attempts of tampering with your personal information. When selecting any identity protection service, most of which are quite affordable, you must know the scope of protection to ensure that you get what you pay for.
The scope of the services
The identity theft protection services comprise three essential components – monitoring services, identity recovery services, and identity theft insurance.
Monitoring services – Maintaining your accounts’ surveillance is the broad scope of the monitoring services that focus on identity monitoring and credit monitoring.
Identity monitoring services issue alerts whenever some individuals or agencies inquire about your personal information and identity. The data can be Social Security Number, Driving License, medical identity number, and passport in some manner that does not reflect your credit card report. You will receive an alert message whenever the information is used for payday loan applications, arrest or court records, requests for change of address, social media, check cashing requests, and websites used for trading stolen information.
Credit monitoring services monitor activity on your credit reports at one or all the major credit bureaus like Experian, TransUnion, and Equifax. When someone checks your credit history while opening a new credit card or loan account, filing for bankruptcy, credit limit changes, and changes to your personal information.
Identity recovery services – Identity recovery services help you regain control of your personal information after any compromise happens with it. You will receive the guidance of trained managers and counselors who will walk you through the process of recovering your identity information. They can guide you to write letters to debt collectors and creditors, place a freeze on your credit report to prevent misuse of the stolen data, and familiarize you with documents that require review.
Identity theft insurance – Most of the major companies that offer ID protection services include identity theft insurance in the package. The insurance will pay for all out-of-pocket expenses incurred during your efforts to reclaim your identity. These usually cost related to create the documents and submit them to the respective agencies or authorities and include postage costs, notary, and copying costs. In some rare cases, it might consist of legal expenses and lost wages.
However, you cannot recover the financial losses arising from identity theft as the insurance policy does not cover it.