Equifax, which is one of the three credit bureaus, offers a service called ID Patrol to help protect you from identity theft. This fraud prevention system is more limited than other services we reviewed because it focuses mainly on the credit bureau information and doesn't monitor other personal data.
When you have an ID Patrol plan through Equifax, the service monitors your Equifax, Experian and TransUnion credit information. If any major information changes on it, you'll receive an automated notification. Equifax ID Patrol is mostly concerned with protecting your credit, but also protects your full name, social security number and address.
You can also set automatic identity fraud alerts on your credit report through ID Patrol. With these alerts, creditors must pass through an additional step in order to extend credit with your personal information. If someone has stolen your identity, this fraud alert feature can help to minimize the damages or prevent them completely.
Through this service, you can lock your Equifax credit report so that no one can see it. You can also unlock it when you want to as well. This can protect you from having someone use your information to open an unauthorized account with your data. However, this service only provides this feature for the Equifax credit report. It doesn't provide it for TransUnion or Experian, which are the other two credit bureaus.
Equifax offers recovery assistance should your identity ever be stolen. The company has a trained security and recovery team that will dedicate its assistance to help you work through the difficult process of restoring your credit and identity. Equifax offers $20,000 in insurance through its Identity Fraud Expense Reimbursement Master Policy, which is underwritten by Travelers Casualty and Surety Company of America.
Since Equifax is one of the three major credit bureaus, they have complete access to your credit history. Not only will they send you a yearly 3-in-1 credit report so you can compare between the credit bureaus, Equifax also gives you access to unlimited credit reports from their individual agency. This doesn't mean, however, that the report regenerates constantly.
Equifax has phone support available all day, every day. After you apply for membership, you also will have exclusive access to their online member center.
Equifax ID Patrol is an effective identity theft protection service if you're mainly concerned about protecting your identity with the three credit bureaus. It doesn't do much for monitoring other personal information though. In addition to monitoring your credit report, Equifax uniquely offers unlimited access to your credit history report. If you need constant updates of your credit history and not just a yearly report, Equifax ID Patrol is a good option.
