@ Burned Once from your comment:
>>But that said, I’m skeptical about Equifax’s ID Patrol. For the money you’re spending, you have no idea what they are actually doing for you or how effective it is. You’re buying a pig in a poke to soothe your fear, and the only reason to buy that pig is trust in Equifax to be competent and do the right thing.

Yes, that is pretty much how I felt about it too. However, even if the identity theft features are ambiguous, the basic features are still far and away better than any other credit monitoring service I have ever used.

To me, the identity theft specialist on staff was a nice benefit (as Christopher explained, they are going to make that feature more recognizable), as was the identity theft insurance. I took the time to really read through everything the insurance covered, and I was very impressed.

I completely disagree with the first response by Ken that “identity theft is pretty to avoid “. My case began after an employee of a former employer of mine left a laptop containing unencrypted personal data from their Human Resources department in her car in her unlocked garage overnight in a neighborhood that had had a rash of burglaries. (The company was VeriSign, and this happened last year. You can do a web search for the news articles if you’d like to verify the facts. You’d think a computer security company would be better, wouldn’t you? But…) Someone please tell me how I could have avoided that by being careful.

Then look at high profile incidents such as theft of credit information from TJX who was using unsecured WiFi to transmit sensitive data. If the people who have your personal data aren’t careful with it, you can be screwed through no fault of your own.

For me, part of the (lame) amends by VeriSign included a free year of credit monitoring by Equifax. I’m glad I had it; it helped easy my mind.

But that said, I’m skeptical about Equifax’s ID Patrol. For the money you’re spending, you have no idea what they are actually doing for you or how effective it is. You’re buying a pig in a poke to soothe your fear, and the only reason to buy that pig is trust in Equifax to be competent and do the right thing.

I’m ain’t saying they ain’t, I just ain’t sure that they is.

Regarding Equifax WebDetect, this product feature uses real-time, web crawling technology to constantly scan suspected Internet trading sites and provides alerts to subscribers if their personal information (Social Security number or major debit or credit card numbers) is found. Consumers’ personal information is being bought, traded and sold in unsecured, public Internet chat rooms, blogs and websites around the world each day. Equifax WebDetect alerts notify subscribers that their personal information has been compromised—the data may yet to have been used to actually commit fraud. These alerts enable subscribers to act quickly to take the necessary steps to regain control of their credit information.

I wanted to add, the the best way to get your credit report for free is to visit http://www.AnnualCreditReport.com. There is no need to sign up for anything to get your credit reports. By visiting that site, you can get all three of your reports in one go – completely free.

I basically pay for a credit monitoring service because I am in the middle of improving my credit after dealing with some past due medical bills for close to a year. Since I do not currently have top of the line credit, and I am taking an active roll in trying to raise it (paying the bills down, keeping my debt to credit ratio low, etc.) It is worth it to me to have the service so that I can keep up with how much my score goes up every month.

This is definitely not a service for everyone, but I have found it to be well worth the $15 a month because it allows me to time my credit applications (car loan, new credit card, etc.) so that I can get the best interest rate.

I agree that some of the identity theft features are ambiguous, but the identity theft protection actually does reimburse you for charges made against your bank account, as well as notarized copies of letters to your credit agencies, and even time off work. Since I was already paying for the credit reports without the additional insurance, I thought it was well worth switching because it was like picking up the insurance at no additional cost.

Thanks again for your comments!

Cheers,
Ken