What Identity Theft Insurance Covers
Identity theft is one of the fastest growing crimes in the country. The revelation that Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke and his wife were victims of identity theft should give us all pause and prompt us to take a look at identity theft protection. Many companies help consumers prevent identity theft or help them recover when it does.
Other People Are Reading
-
Out-of-Pocket Costs
-
Recovering from identity theft can be time consuming and expensive. To recover your good name, you probably will have to send lots of letters to creditors, credit bureaus and other companies. You also may need to spend money to replace compromised documents, including passports, driver's licenses and Social Security cards. Quality identity theft insurance will reimburse you for these costs.
Reimbursement for Lost Wages
-
Because recovering from identity theft is time-consuming process, you might need to take time off work occasionally. An identity theft insurance policy should reimburse you for any unpaid time away from work. These policies have dollar limits, though, so consider your annual salary and calculate how many days of missed work the policy will cover.
-
Legal Fees
-
Identity thieves sometimes use their ill-gotten gains in the commission a crime, and if that happens, you might be called upon to defend yourself from bogus charges. Quality identity theft insurance covers the cost of mounting both criminal and civil defenses.
Counseler
-
An identity theft insurance policy also should provide some sort of dedicated credit counseling service. This ongoing credit counseling can be a great way to get your credit back on track after your credit history has been damaged by an identity thief.
Monitoring Service
-
Monitoring your credit is always important, but it is absolutely critical when you have been a victim of identity theft. Identity theft insurance should provide a way to monitor your credit for a set period of time after the identity theft has been discovered.
A good identity theft insurance program will include a fraud alert on your credit file to notify creditors and others who look at your credit history that a potential problem exists.
Prevention
-
Identity theft insurance can put a freeze on your credit file to prevent new inquiries, which can help to head off identity theft before it starts. The plan will allow you to unfreeze the account when needed.
-
