How safe is your identity from theft?

by Jason Cass

At JDC Insurance Group we have a client that had their identity stolen while away on vacation. It happened on their second day of an eight day vacation. Without the coverage that we added to their homeowners, their vacation would have been ruined. Within two days they had their credit restored as if it had never happened and the insurance company did 99% of the work to get it restored.

Is it worth the cost to have this protection?

Most of the time it can be added to your homeowners policy for as little as $20 per year…That’s right per year! The average cost to restore your credit can cost $7,000-$15,000 and it takes an average of 25-30 days to get restored if you do it on your own.

So what does it cover?

Identity theft coverage is not going to replace the money that was stolen from you. Most of the time your credit card or bank assumes that loss. What it will pay for is the cost to restore your credit back to the way it was. As mentioned above, that is costly and time consuming.

How does identity theft coverage work?

So if your company offers it and you get it added to your homeowners policy you just make one call to their identity theft hot-line. They have experts that will immediately take action to:

Quickly assess your situation to determine if fraud has occurred.
Stop damage to your credit within minutes of your authorization by directly contacting major credit bureaus.
Make all required phone calls to creditors, banks and agencies.
Assist you in replacing documents, including driver’s license, passport, Social Security card or other ID.
Provide an emergency cash advance if the theft occurs while you’re away from home (check your policy for specifics).
Provide up to $25,000 in recovery for expense reimbursement with no deductible

Also, you can get extra protection for your computer

With some companies, you’ll get additional coverage for your computer as well. This online data protection includes tools to protect your data while you surf the Internet. For example:

1. DataScramblerTM protects your keystrokes from being monitored.
2. PhishBlockTM warns you if you attempt to access a phishing site. This optional service works alongside your anti-virus software and can be downloaded and installed on your computers in your home

You also can get free credit monitoring as part of your policy

allied Most insurance companies provide credit monitoring to their ID theft customers. This optional service will email you when your credit report changes. This part is also free to a member of the household

Don’t spend all your time trying to recover your stolen identity. Save time and money with identity theft coverage.