Free Identity Theft Insurance - Claim Experience

Finance
1

This topic became relevant for all, unfortunately, since Equifax data breach… though Anthem put many of us in the same situation two years earlier.

Credit Sesame: $50K free identity theft insurance
Fraud or embezzlement
Theft
Forgery
Data breach
Stolen identity event
Unauthorized Electronic Fund Transfer

Civic: $1 million free identity theft insurance
Fraud or embezzlement
Theft
Forgery
Data breach
Stolen identity event

WaMu used to offer it for free… RIP
Any other banks or CUs still offer it?

AAA has it at a discount in some regions… so does AARP. But we, of course, prefer FREE.

This thread is reserved for sharing advise and experience with claims, not just signing up for the coverage. Let’s hope none of us ever need it, but those who do should be compensated accordingly.

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I personally do not believe in Identity Theft Insurance. Considering that you are not responsible for unauthorized charges and that most likely you will have to clean up the mess yourself without incurring any actual expenses, what exactly do you expect ID theft insurance to pay you for?

Should we make this topic a bit more generic and include the steps one should take after discovering ID theft? I had written up and posted the following before, but it may need some refining:

  1. Watch your accounts and dispute any unauthorized transactions.
  2. Report ID theft to the local police department and record the report number (or get the full report if you can).
  3. Place a Security Freeze on all credit reports and public data aggregators (free with the police report): Experian, Equifax, TransUnion, Innovis, ARS, IDA, LexisNexis (Krebs article, Clark Howard guide).
  4. Get your credit reports (free once a year) and start monitoring your credit (free at freecreditscore, creditkarma, quizzle, creditsesame, etc). Verify that your reports are correct, dispute anything that isn’t.
  5. Notify ChexSystems (may require the police report), get the report (free once a year), verify it.
  6. Get a PIN for filing taxes with IRS (Krebs article). Make a habit of filing as early as possible, just in case.
  7. Disable online access or get a PIN for accessing your SSA data online (Krebs article).
  8. Report ID Theft to the FTC at identitytheft.gov. There’s more info and similar steps described with more detail.

All of these except 2, 8, and the first part of 5 can be done as a precaution even before theft occurs.

There’s already another thread here that may be referenced in steps 3 and 4.

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Some of these policies cover lost wages, for example, and dealing with ID theft may be very time consuming…

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LOL I think I revived the wrong thread. Will update this one: