Have You Heard about the Lifelock Lawsuit?
I’ve been borrowing a car with satellite radio for the past few days, while we wait for my VW to act up again. The good news about this is that I can listen to my choice of radio stations (and now covet a satellite radio, but that’s another story).
Almost daily, whether it’s when I’m listening to the news in the morning or Dave Ramsey on the way home, I hear an advertisement for Lifelock. The CEO/President gives his social security number over the air, challenging anyone to steal his identity; with Lifelock, it’s not possible, he says. Are you familiar with them? Essentially, you pay them $10/month to protect you from identity theft.
Well, turns out Experian, a well-known credit-reporting agency, is suing Lifelock for this service. Experian claims Lifelock exaggerates its services and doesn’t offer what it claims to. In response, Lifelock says Experian is mad that Lifelock is threatening its ability to use consumer data without consent.
Sounds to me like Lifelock is right. Credit Reporting Agencies are notorious for giving out our info, bringing us pre-approved junk mail, etc. But Lifelock members are opted out of these, meaning less consumer info to sell.
If anyone has had experience with Lifelock, whether as a user or as a friend of one, I’d love to hear your opinion of the service.
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3 Responses to “Have You Heard about the Lifelock Lawsuit?”
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I think they both are… ug. Lifelock seems to do things you can do yourself–put a fraud alert on your files so you get a phone call when someone tries to get credit (shouldn’t this be standard practice??), stop junk mail (there is a site that does this), stop pre-screen credit offers (same), send you a credit report every year (same).
Experian (etc.) is annoyed for reasons you state, and probably because those fraud alerts are only supposed to be placed on your report in the case of actual fraud.
I’ve been a Lifelock client for two years now, and they are pretty open about the fact that you can do for yourself the service they provide - putting a credit alert out for each of the agencies, but it’s a lot of hassle to do this yourself, so I don’t think there’s a problem with this. We pay for all kinds of services we can do for ourselves but don’t want to bother for, like eating out, or having our car washed. It’s just a convenience society, so I don’t fault them for that at all.
Whether or not this service actually protects you from identity theft, I don’t really know… but there is peace of mind that something’s at least in place trying to stop it.
I don’t like lifelock but I did sign up for Dave’s recommended Zander Insurance ID Protection plan. I know they don’t freeze my account or anything like that (I don’t want that) but I liked the idea of having someone assigned to help me if my ID was stolen and being reimbursed for fees and things. Especially now thta I am signing up for more things online with the blog.
Before signing up I researched LifeLock too, and it seemed to do less than Zander for more money.
BTW - I LOVE XM radio. It came with my Honda and now I pay for the subscription but it’s totally worth it… especially on the 6.5 hour drives to my parents.