Best defense from identity theft

[MySunrise271]

Is it good enough to have a credit freeze on all credit repairs or does upgrading to a paid subscription plan to lock your credit reports give a better layer of protection?

[Traveler101]

You can freeze your tu, ex, eq all for free via their sites. Upgrading doesn't really get you any extra protection that freeze can do. That and a few sites like credit karma and free services banks generally offer alert you if someone is attempting to pull your credit. I have freezes and the additional protection of warnings. My phone generally blows up If I apply for something, lol. 

For extra measure, I lock all of my cards when I can to prevent fraudulent charges when a card is not in use. Best to be as precautionary as we can be.

[CorpCrMgr1]

Keep an eye on your accounts. Lock if you feel necessary. 

[markbeiser]

There are a number of identity monitoring services that monitor for signs of identity theft, the dark web, and continuously put in requests to people finder sites, etc. to remove your information.
Typically only cost a few dollars a month, and come with insurance.
I have it as an upgrade to my paid membership with Experian, and it has massively decreased the amount of junk mail to both my physical mail box, email, and spam phone calls.

[Traveler101]

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@markbeiser wrote:

There are a number of identity monitoring services that monitor for signs of identity theft, the dark web, and continuously put in requests to people finder sites, etc. to remove your information.
Typically only cost a few dollars a month, and come with insurance.
I have it as an upgrade to my paid membership with Experian, and it has massively decreased the amount of junk mail to both my physical mail box, email, and spam phone calls.

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Aura is very good about doing just that. I actually saw that as an offer from amex for 1 year free. I snagged it. They monitor all 3, even sp attempts on your your reports gets you an alert in pretty much real time. That and shuts down data brokers and monitors your bank accounts for suspicious activity. Gotta love that.

[MySunrise271]

Thanks, @Traveler101  I have the same Aura offer on my Amex BCE and snapped it up as well.

[clipperskipper]

I have Aura through our companies legal services plan, however it doesn't protect your ssn. 
last week, I received a call from HR, asking if I filed for unemployment in my state. Long story short, they were alerted by Equifax. How was my SSN leaked out? Equifax security breach.

I have gone through all of the steps, including a form on the DUA site, local police, credit bureaus locked, changed passwords, etc.

Point is, never let down your guard.