No, not at all. I registered by DH & I up for All Clear credit monitoring after a couple of different stores were hacked. I had forgotten completely about it when out of the blue I started seeing monthly emails saying there was no new activity on my DH's credit but after the confirmation, I've never received anything. Those services and All Clear in particular are a joke and huge rip off.

We have LifeLock and it's very responsive.

I don't think you need them. I recently traveled to Canada for a 2 day visit (it's very close to my home) and Visa froze both of my credit cards when I tried to make a purchase! Yes, the criminals are stealing credit cards to travel to Victoria and have afternoon tea at the Empress. Yep, that's what they do. I was mortified and furious that my purchases are being monitored and that no one with any common sense is making decisions about freezing my cards when I am trying to use them. Oh, they left a message on my home machine (hello! I am on a little vacation so am not going to get your messages!) telling me to call them to verify that it was me using the cards. It's not like I was in Venezuela, for heaven's sake, buying diamond rings. Empress Hotel, Ferry to Victoria and Butchart Gardens, a couple hundred miles from my home and they say I can't do that without notifying them.

All to say, you are being monitored already by big business and if someone opens a fraudulent account, you are not liable.

Credit monitoring services can vary. Mine have always been directly from one of the three credit bureaus.

Credit inquiries report immediately, but new accounts update on a lenders regular reporting cycle. Mortgages can take three months to start reporting, for example.

Monitoring for when banks are looking at your credit can be an indicator to you that someone is applying for credit using your information. That's your first line of defense.

Any time you travel outside of the country you should call your credit card companies and bank. I actually tried to pay for hotels in the Cook Islands recently and Amex flagged and stopped the transaction. It was a pain, but I should have known. While we do leave until October, I already notified them of the trip so when we make our final hotel payment, it won't be flagged.

I also get text alerts on my two Chase cards for gas station purchases, online and overseas purchases and set a minimum limit for other text. Chase is wonderful about catching things before you even know it is happening.

We've had credit cards flagged for various reasons, but all have been understandable. Only one involved actual fraud (and we got a call immediately on our home phone as well as my mobile). We had to cancel and reissue that card, The rest were flagged for suspicious activity, usually when DD (who has one of may cards because she does upkeep on our vacation house (out of area) and I was on the road using the same account out of area. Another time when DH tried to use the card at three service stations within an hour out of area (he filled up DD's carat one place, his at another place, and then stopped by. A mechanic to get something checked out. These are easily fixed by calling the customer service number on the card. But it is also the reason we always have at least two cards.

Lately, we have just had to up our monitoring due to IRS fraud. Apparently someone filed a return in our name in Februrary. Fortunately the IRS caught it, didn't pay the requested refund, and wrote us and told is they had held up the refund (good) until they could verify that it was us. We called the number given and told them we hadn't filed yet and were pretty sure we would not be due a refund. Our accountant said he had several other clients in the same boat. Not long after we did file (showing we owed almost another six figures on top of the estimates which we had already paid) we got another letter from the IRS asking if we had filed that one. I kind if thought that was silly -- I really don't think many theives actually file a fraudulent return stating that taxes were owed and then pay that amount. Still getting duplicate letters from the IRS about twice a month, no demands, but advising us to get a taxpayer PIN, file police reports, and reports with the FTC, and increase credit monitoring. We've followed every item to a T, with the exception of the PIN However, when you call to get the PIN your are on hold for over an hour only to be told that they don't have the procedure in place yet. We have, however, received confirmation that our taxes were properly credited. We've also sent everything to our accountant so he has a full file on this mess. He said that best he could tell, the theives appeared to be targeting professionals with primarily K-1 income.

We also had our credit reports checked and all was good there. The other piece of advice the IRS gave was to file as early as possible, but that doesn't work for us because we are still getting K-1s and 1099s well into March each year.

Credit card companies seem to be good at monitoring your existing accounts. But if a criminal opens a new card in your name you really have no way of knowing unless your accounts are monitored.

All Clear is pretty much useless. I also was notified by Anthem. I put a credit alert on my cards with TransUnion and heard more from them than All Clear. TU only lasts for 3 months then it needs to be renewed. Amex is excellent about sending text messages with every purchase. Also, if you have an Iphone and put your cards on ApplePay you get a text every time a charge is made even if you don't use ApplePay. Another way to watch. Just don't lose your phone.

I cut down the number of credit cards a while back. I no longer give my home phone number -- only the cell which I always have with me. Agree with Allison, Chase is excellent. I go over every bill very carefully. I caught a microcharge -- 9.95 -- on a porn website. Not mine LOL. Figured someone was testing. Chase pulled the card and sent me a new one. Also theirs has the chip, not the strip.

I agree with the text messages and using your cell number. When traveling, let your cc company know you will be traveling. Keep a minimal number of cards, the less you have, the less chances for someone to hack. Another option more for ordering online, etc. although we have a few stores that now accept it - is paypal. My credit union told me this is one of the safest methods for on-line purchases, money transfers, etc.

We had a service called ProtectMyID after a state tax return hack. It did work pretty well at the time. I got pretty quick notice on a new account.

Yes, for Canada I did call my credit card company. Right now we only use certain credit cards regularly. We only use credit cards for gas and use specific cards for online purchases. We also use paypal but connected to a credit card vs. our bank account unless we are getting some payment, then we disconnect it again.