LifeLock and fraud alerts

[natasjlp]

I recently purchased LifeLock an identity protection company to protect me from any identity theft.

However, they put a 'Fraud Alert' on my credit reports every 90 days to make sure creditors call me and verify it is me every time I apply for credit and so on.

How does this affect my credit and FICO score if at all.

[FICOADDICTED]

I have LifeLock for couple of years now and I do not see any effect on my credit or scores at all.  What I like about the program too is that it eliminates unwanted pre-approval letters that stuffed our mail box before we signed up.  That's the purposed of having LifeLock is to verify your identity before any credit is issued; when I applied at Home Depot a year ago I actually have to talk to a Home Depot credit services via phone and asked me couple questions then approved me.  It took only at least less than 10 minutes for that process, same thing with Citi Card - I got the 7-10 days message, I called the next day and the rep told me that he's glad that I called they cannot approve/complete  my application because of the fraud alert but few minutes into the conversation he approved me.  So far I liked it a lot both me and my DH signed up with LifeLock. Great customer service as well.

[natasjlp]

[this is not a commercial for LifeLock - I don't know how moderators or admins feel about mentioning names of other companies - I don't think they are a competitor]

I am very happy with LifeLock so far - it is nice to not have to worry about identity theft. Big relief.

But I am interested to know how Fraud Alerts affect your credit if it does at all. It sounds like it hasn't affected your credit and I don't think it has affected my credit. Will it affect anything like DVing or trying to remove an eroneous collection etc...?

I know you need to do the extra contact step which is nice even though of course it is not as convenient. I had to do the extra call step when I became a paid member here and get my FICO score. 

[Anonymous]

The problem I have with LL is that it places FAs on your reports, when there hasn't been any indication of fraud.  I'd prefer to take the $$ and freeze/unfreeze reports as necessary.

Also, anytime I've had FAs (been robbed more than once) I ALWAYS have a problem using my Lowe's card - their system seems to freeze up.  Getting CLIs from certain creditors gets problematic as well.

[natasjlp]

hmmm... interesting. Does anyone know exactly how this works? I will be applying for CLIs very soon on all my cards. I don't have a Lowe's card, but could this affect anyh other cards? I haven't had any issues thus far.

I don't like the idea of taking time to freeze and unfreeze my CRs - it easy to just let another company do this for me and it really isn't very expensive.