Yesterday’s post was the first article in the Insurance You Can Do Without series. The second topic is a relatively new insurance product, identity theft insurance.
If you become a victim of identity theft, an identity theft policy covers lost wages and any other expenses you incur to clear it up. It does not cover the actual loss, since this is often covered by the bank. The majority of crimes classified as identity theft are unauthorized purchases with a stolen credit card number. This can usually be dealt with with a phone call and sending in any information you have to back up your claim. So if identity theft doesn’t insure the loss, and it obviously can’t protect you from the crime of identity theft, is it worth the cost? You might decide it’s not. Identity theft insurance can cost $25-$50 a year, and if you eventually need to make a claim, expect to pay a deductible in the hundreds of dollars.
A better way to protect yourself from identity theft is to shred your documents, review your bank statements for unusual charges and check your credit reports. If you’re a CAA member, you can register all your credit cards with them for free. Then if you lose your wallet or purse, you can phone one number and have all the card issuers notified. Being diligent with your personal identification and financial information will go much further in protecting you from identity theft.
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Tom Drake is the owner and head writer of Canadian Finance Blog.
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Yes, it really pays off to check your credit reports regularly for unusual activities. I read somewhere that there’s a website which waits for your approval for any transactions your credit card makes. There are ways to protect yourself from identity theft. It’s not impossible to stop.
Thanks for the great post! The identity theft insurance is not too expensive, but we should first protect ourselves.
[...] Calculations included Insurance You Can Do Without – Identity Theft Insurance in this week’s Cavalcade of [...]
It would be nice when you get help after being victimized by identity theft. How can you be responsible for paying something that you never purchased in the first place? When you are cleared of all the allegations and it has been proven that somebody else had wrongly used your personal information, you should be given a clean slate so you can start over.
Identity theft has become a major, major problem! And living without protection is like living in a crime infested neighborhood and not having protection on your home. You would probably at least have a really good guard dog and a fence right? Well, not protecting your identity today is the equivalent of living in that neighborhood and refusing to even lock your door. It’s so sad that it’s come to this, but there are always tradeoffs in life. Because we want better medical coverage and a nicer car we pay more to protect and insure them.
Likewise, with something as amazing as the World Wide Web there come tradeoffs also. One tradeoff for us having access to almost everything is that others have access to almost everything about us, our information. And that includes our personal information like social security numbers, banking information and even your medical and criminal history.
Luckily there is a lot of information out to help us understand and protect ourselves from these heartless criminals. Here is an informational website put together to help you and your family. We hope you find it helpful. ID theft protection
Identity theft is a big and most of the time unexpected problem for many. It can destroy someones life and leave them with nothing. It is a great idea to get this insurance and protection.
[...] Insurance You Can Do Without – Identity Theft Insurance (Canadian Finance Blog) [...]
With so many website keeping your data nowadays it is important you visit only secure, genuine websites. Those who are in favour of high risk sites such as gaming, gambling or adult sites are more prone to have their identities jacked.
Getting insurance for cases of identity theft specifically for stolen credit cards has its own benefits. However, why bother if you can prevent such misfortune from happening? Considering that getting insurance will cost a certain amount, you should take note that there are several ways to make sure that your personal data is secured enough to get rid of possible identity theft.
I totally agree with shredding the documents to avoid identity theft. With the insurance thing, I don’t think so if you’re just a simple individual.