Money Crashers: Should You Pay for a Credit Monitoring Service?

My latest piece to go live on Money Crashers is on a topic that's gotten a lot of search traffic since the  2017 Equifax hack: credit monitoring and ID theft services. These services promise to watch your credit report for signs of fraud, give you access to your credit score, insure you against identity theft, and sometimes even monitor the "dark web" to see if anyone is trying to sell your Social Security number. But these benefits come with a cost—typically between $10 and $30 per month.

So are they worth it? The answer depends on your personal situation. In the article, I outline the pros and cons of credit monitoring, the features of the top credit monitoring services, and some alternative ways to protect yourself for less—or even for free. Then I conclude with a list of three questions to ask yourself to decide whether paid credit monitoring is worth the money for you.

Read all about it here: Should You Pay for a Credit Monitoring Service? - Best Options

Please note that this article was written several months ago, and there's some info in it that's a little out of date. The article says that initial fraud alerts last for only 90 days and that freezing and unfreezing your credit report costs money in most states. However, a new law that took effect last month changes both these points. An initial fraud alert is now good for up to a year, and credit freezes are now free throughout the country. This info should be updated in the article shortly.