Many people don’t realize they already have free services available to them through their relationships with financial institutions. If you have a Mastercard credit card or debit card, for example, you can sign up for free restoration and monitoring services, including alerts if your user credentials are compromised in a corporate data breach.
(Keep in mind that you have liability protections for your bank and credit card accounts, too. For example, American Express, Discover, Mastercard and Visa credit cards all come with zero-liability protection, which means you won’t have to pay a single dollar lost due to a fraudulent charge made on your account.)
You may also have a free identity theft protection plan through your employer, and some renters and homeowners insurance policies include protection for financial accounts, too.
“Many identity theft protections already come with products you use — your antivirus software, for example,” says Mayne, “so it’s worth your time and money to understand what you already have available before buying another product that does the same thing.”
You can also explore free services online. For example, to find out if your information has been “pwned,” or compromised in a data breach, and sign up for future data breach alerts, try using Have I Been Pwned.
As for securing your credit reports and preventing certain forms of credit card fraud, you can set up a credit freeze, which blocks anyone from opening up a new loan or credit card in your name, by contacting the three national credit bureaus (Experian, Equifax and TransUnion). You can also visit AnnualCreditReport.com to pull your credit reports for free once a week and review them for signs of fraud, such as hard inquiries for loans and credit cards you have not applied for.
Perhaps the best news for people hoping to save money is that you are your own strongest defense against identity theft. “The best way to protect your identity is by consistently taking free, preventative actions,” says Mayne. That includes using unique and complex passwords for each of your accounts, enabling multifactor authentication for account sign-in, and installing software updates for your devices, apps and web browsers as soon as they’re available.
Additionally, you should never click links or attachments that appear in unsolicited text messages and e-mails; they may lead to scam websites or install malware on your device.