After several inquiries in the last few days …and then actually receiving my own letter after an earlier email a post subject matter was formed!
After a data breach, should you accept the free credit monitoring service?
With a bias…longtime followers, may recall that my personal complete identity has been stolen north of four times with absolutely no loss of funds, but certainly hassle.
If there is a reason for extra concern, or if you’re seeing something fishy occur with any of your personal information, then it’s likely a good idea to go ahead and accept the service. Be forewarned, frequently, the service will try and upsell you and are not always good at letting you know when the one year free anniversary occurs, and finally frequently ask for a lot of personal information, so be prepared.
While, not trying to be callous to the situation, this is the modern day Bonnie and Clyde and likely to occur as they say not if but when for many large organizations moving forward. If you’re not losing sleep over this and you’re like me and maybe have had this occur multiple times already so you’re information is already out there, it’s OK to pass on this offer for the hassle factor of remembering to turn it off when it renews as well as the hassle factor of disclosing a lot of uncomfortable information to get their service set up.
Coming from a biased perspective, I personally chose not to utilize the service, but over a decade ago when the first several identities were stolen and similar offers were made I did utilize the service.
Either way you go, it’s a very personal choice and this is the world we live in moving forward, so on a daily basis be sure to shepherd your information and take extra care when something fishy hits your inbox or something out of the ordinary comes at you!
Have a Great “It’s Your Choice” Day!
John A. Kvale CFA, CFP
AI Content Authenticity: Dall e 4 via copilot was used to create Bonnie and Clyde. All of the following text content has been completed by myself and has not been edited or created by AI.
Founder of J.K. Financial, Inc.
A Dallas Texas based fee only
Financial Planning Total Wealth
Management firm.
