Lifelock - Does it work?
 

Does it work? Any other better services out there or can you do this stuff yourself?

A second credit card was compromised in the past 9 months. I'm more concerned now about someone getting enough information to open bogus accounts, etc.

So, put out your experiences with these kinds of services.

Send a written request to each of the three agencies (it used to be $10 each): Transunion, Equifax, and Experian and request to have your credit reports frozen. I'm sure you can find the form letters online or at the three individual sites....don't remember what I used many years ago. That's all it takes...those "services" are a rip-off imo.

edited: A quick search turned up this link (lots of 'em out there):

http://consumerist.com/2007/11/how-to-freeze-your-credit-report.html

you can call anyone of them ,once you do it puts a credit fraud alert ,freezze on your name ,what i usally do is your allowed one credit report a year for free from each of them i stagger them and go to each one ...transunion,equifax,experian each every four months so i'm covered all year without have to pay .life lock

Lifelock Dinged $12 Million for Deceptive Business Practices | Threat Level | Wired.com

And Todd Davis got totally pwned... by a guy who was mentally disabled When you get your ass handed to you by an actual retard, your sauce has to be pretty weak.

Police Say LifeLock Coerced Unusable Confession from Identity Theft Suspect | Threat Level | Wired.com

So, I'm gonna go ahead and say "no, it doesn't work"

You sure about that? I don't think so, and do not believe the three credit agencies share info. So it depends upon which one is being used by whomever to "open a card" up or whatnot. Equifax seems to be the one that most use, but you never know...at least that's the only one I've ever had to request a "temporary thaw" to open a new phone account, etc. I'd play it safe and do all three just to be sure...it's painless and "one time", then forget about it imo...

I listened to a story about creditkarma.com on the radio. Free service. I signed up out of curiosity. It's scary what is out there with only name, address and last 4 of the social input to determine identity. Everything was correct and it says they send alerts with changes. ymmv.

Yeah; no, that tool got his id stolen, so they are crap. My visa is very good maybe too good as they will disallow strange charges and call me to see if i made that purchase. I've had two charges disputed that they honored, so i would call them. Another good practice is get a card with a low lmit just for internet purchases.

Good luck

Freezing your credit at the three afore mentioned agencies will have no effect if "whomever" doesn't run a credit check...like running up charges on an existing CC. Don't worry, both Visa and Mastercard will reimburse any fraudulent charges...it's part of their "cost of doing business". I still highly recommend it...no one can "open" a new card, get a phone in your name, etc.

ps: additional bonus...it did cut down on the junk mail CC offers etc. from filling up my mailbox :)