You make a really important point here, that I should have mentioned. Yes, if you think you are a victim of identity theft, then you absolutely need to FREEZE your credit report. A fraud alert is not as effective, and freezing your report is free if you are a victim of identity theft.

Thanks for giving me a chance to get that out there, it’s really important for people to know about.

When I recommend a credit monitoring service for victims of identity theft, I more or less meant that you should do it after the id theft issue was resolved.

From my point of view, once my information had been stolen, it was always stolen. There was not way for me to know if it would be re-sold or used again in the future. So, while the immediate action was to freeze my credit reports, and fix the mess, I do continue to monitor “just in case”.

A lot of people think that just pulling your free credit reports once a year is enough to counteract identity theft. The truth is, by the time you pull those reports, you could be months straightening everything out. Having that continuous monitoring service alerts you to illicit actions that much quicker.

Thanks again for your comments, I’ve really enjoyed them.

If you’re a victim of identity theft, it’s free.

As long as you don’t need to open new credit lines in the future, it could be worth your while.