Go to clarkhoward.com and search for 'credit monitoring' - he has great input on anything that takes money out of your pocket. daveramsey.com is another good place to search, as is google.com. Search for 'problems with credit monitoring programs'.

My brokerage firm signed all their clients up with one after someone hacked into their files and "compromised" our personal information.
When I bought my new car, I didn't get notice that someone was inquiring about my account (lender for the car) until three days afterward.
Someone could have gone through a lot of $$$ in that three days.

I did some searching since you asked. They sure are costly.

I also went to clarkhoward.com and did a search on credit monitor. The advice there was to put a freeze on all 3 major credit unions at a one time cost of $10 each. It would then cost to have it 'unfrozen' if you wanted to apply for credit, but it sounds like a pretty good deal to me. I don't anticipate applying for any 'new' credit anytime soon.

read down to---Oct 16, 2007 -- Clark freezes his credit with TransUnion

Sue

Here is a link that might be useful: Clark freezes his credit

I just read about a lawsuit or complaint the credit bureaus were making against these anti-identity theft programs. I guess what they essentially do is put up a continuous fraud alert and the credit bureau doesn't think it's right in cases where there hasn't been any attempted fraud. I don't know if anything will come of that. It does sound like it would be effective. I say, why does it have to be a fraud alert? Why can't you just put a stop to credit being issued in your name if you know you aren't looking for any?

I don't understand why the credit companies can't be held responsible for this. It boggles my mind. They quickly hand over loads of credit to someone who basically just hands over a few bits of information without proving who they are and it's the victims who are left to pick up the pieces (and the other credit holders who end up paying higher interest rates and fees to cover the lost money). The credit companies get off scott free and they are the ones that are so eager to issue credit without hardly any safeguards in place to prevent fraud.