April 14,2009
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Protection w/o a Rip-off, Pt.3
Demand your moneys' worth in protection.Fraud alert services: These aren't what they used to be. The original purpose was for cases where fraud was believed to be imminent and to alert the credit card lenders. But, today, with all these services racking up new business, the system has now been flooded with false warnings. Warnings were placed on so many of the credit card accounts by these companies that the lenders have had to start ignoring them. They were being sucked into stepping up their efforts to closely monitor all these credit card accounts when there was no basis for it.
Actually, the technique they use could be just as easily employed by any ordinary credit card consumer. Sure, the proactive approach is safer but the banks aren't simply going to be sucked into doing all the work so someone else can sell the service. You can set up your own alerts on-line where your lender will notify you immediately over certain activities to your credit card account including amounts being charged. You can select warnings via e-mail, texting or even automated phone calls to alert you and it's all free.
If you're not wanting to do the extra work and decide to pay someone to do it for you, these are some things to find out before buying a credit card protection service:
o Individual Service Deliverables: How many services do they offer and what will they do for you?
o Individual Service Costs: Are there additional ‘add-on' fees or additional charges if they do find something wrong?
o Monitor Depth: Do they query public and private databases and other places typically unavailable to the average consumer? How extensively do they search for places that may contain your personal information. Basically, how much more do they do than you could do yourself?
o Timely Alerts: What response time will they commit to alert you of suspicious activity of your sensitive information and credit card account?
o Damage Control: How much and what kind of actual assistance will they provide in limiting and repairing your damages if you become a victim. Do they just offer you advice or do they do some of the work in resolving your problem?