Lifelock

Just wondered if anyone has used their service to protect their identity in the US. 

Hubby and I are looking at signing up for the peace of mind it seems to offer where we now live abroad.  Currently, we have absolutely NO plans of moving back to the US, but who knows what the future holds.  If we ever do, we don't want to have whatever credit we have there to be tarnished due to something we didn't know about and could possibly not know about for years until it's way too late.

Oh, I actually had that when I was in NYC, and it was great!
I had something show up on my credit report, an actual court judgement for a huge sum of money, that was NOT mine! I actually had perfect credit, and I suddenly could not even rent roller skates, and I spent like 8 months getting it removed - so after that I got Lifelock.
They provided an awesome service.
I had it for years.

I don't know about Lifelock, so can't comment, but you can freeze your credit, which prevents anyone from accessing your report (which they need to do to open a new account). This would prevent a thief from creating a new account in your name which you might not know about.

You can also access your credit report for free up to 3x/year, so you can use this to monitor your credit. I had an item randomly show up in collections from a car I sold before I left - managed to get it taken off pretty easily, but if I hadn't been keeping an eye on my credit report I wouldn't have known about it (never got any notices or bills).

That's good to know.  I thought you could only freeze your credit if you were already a victim of identity theft.  Glad you don't have to be.  I may do that as an alternative.

Also good to know that Lifelock is good and not a crock.  I always get a little weary with companies like that which seem to good, so I like to get first hand reviews. 

Thanks to both of you for your input!

That's good to know.  I thought you could only freeze your credit if you were already a victim of identity theft.  Glad you don't have to be.  I may do that as an alternative.

I think it's required to be free if you're an ID theft victim, but almost all states require that you be able to do it regardless. I think it's generally $5-10 as a one-time fee to freeze (or unfreeze, if you change your mind later).