Best Identity Theft Protection Program?

[jonblaze24]

Hey guys, was hoping to get some input on this topic. 

A close friend if mine recently got her identity stolen by someone across the country and has made it rain on her credit report, just hearing what she is going through makes me cringe. 

My question for you guys is what is the best way to protect against things like this? I currently pay for a service through Experian, but I am pretty sure that only protects that portion of my credit file. I do keep it 'locked' when I am not applying/CLI'ing....do we think this is good enough? Or is there a program that will monitor all 3? 

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. 

[calyx]

Speaking as someone who has had fraud issues in the past:

I keep all three big CRAs "frozen" (not locked, that's different) unless I'm going to app for something.
I don't pay for any programs - I just have accounts with freebie services who do reporting.   Any time *I* have done anything, I get reports right away, so I'm not worried about someone doing something naughty.

[jonblaze24]

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@calyx wrote:

Speaking as someone who has had fraud issues in the past:

I keep all three big CRAs "frozen" (not locked, that's different) unless I'm going to app for something.
I don't pay for any programs - I just have accounts with freebie services who do reporting.   Any time *I* have done anything, I get reports right away, so I'm not worried about someone doing something naughty.

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Thank you for your feedback....how exactly do you go about "freezing" you EXP, EQU and TU credit files? Are you able to do that through something like Credit Karma or one of those sites? 

[Adkins]

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@jonblaze24 wrote:

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@calyx wrote:

Speaking as someone who has had fraud issues in the past:

I keep all three big CRAs "frozen" (not locked, that's different) unless I'm going to app for something.
I don't pay for any programs - I just have accounts with freebie services who do reporting.   Any time *I* have done anything, I get reports right away, so I'm not worried about someone doing something naughty.

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Thank you for your feedback....how exactly do you go about "freezing" you EXP, EQU and TU credit files? Are you able to do that through something like Credit Karma or one of those sites? 

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Go directly to each CRAs website, they each have their own instructions on how to freeze your file with them. 

[Anonymous]

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@calyx wrote:

Speaking as someone who has had fraud issues in the past:

I keep all three big CRAs "frozen" (not locked, that's different) unless I'm going to app for something.
I don't pay for any programs - I just have accounts with freebie services who do reporting.   Any time *I* have done anything, I get reports right away, so I'm not worried about someone doing something naughty.

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Yup same here.