April 2007
Free or low-cost steps you can take
Here are other ways to protect yourself from identity theft:
- Obtain copies of your credit report. Federal law entitles you to one free report every year from each of the three credit
bureaus. Go to www.annualcreditreport.com, the only Web site authorized to deliver the free reports. Stagger your requests to get one report every four months.
- Place a security freeze on your credit report, which prevents an ID thief's prospective creditors from accessing your account.
You can unfreeze it when you're in the market for credit. Twenty-six states give consumers this right. In most, it applies
to all consumers, though some permit only people who are already ID-theft victims to do so. Credit bureaus usually charge
a $10 to $12 fee each time you freeze or unfreeze your report, and you must pay each credit bureau individually.
- If you think you need to subscribe to a service, consider signing up for one of the new ID fraud prevention and detection
services rather than a credit-report-monitoring service. Among such services currently available are ID Secure ($12 a month,
www.idsecure.com), IDWatch ($72 a year, www.intelius.com), and Identity Guard Fraud Protection ($11 a month, www.identityguard.com). Prices are as of early February.
- For advice on how to reduce your exposure to identity theft, visit the Financial Privacy Now Campaign at www.ConsumersUnion.org. You can also check out the nonprofit Identity Theft Resource Center at www.idtheftcenter.org and the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse at www.privacyrights.org.
