Credit Monitoring and Identity Theft Protection for Two Adults | Equifax Canada (2024)

FAQs

Is identity theft insurance worth it in Canada? ›

Make sure you're protected with identity theft insurance

It's estimated that only about 25% of Canadians have identity theft protection, leaving most of the population at risk. Each year there are tens of thousands of reported cases, and many go unreported, costing Canadians millions of dollars.

Three-bureau credit monitoring alerts you of changes on credit reports from all three credit bureaus — Experian, Equifax and TransUnion. Without triple-bureau protection, you can miss errors that may only appear on one of the three credit reports.

Identity theft protection services include credit monitoring but add other services like social media scanning, change-of-address alerts, sex offender registry reports, file-sharing network searches, medical identity monitoring, and computer antivirus protection.

The rate of incidents of identity theft in Canada decreased by 1.6 incidents (-8.46 percent) in 2022 in comparison to the previous year. Nevertheless, the last two years recorded a significant higher rate of incidents than the preceding years.

Identity theft protection services can be worthwhile if you want a centralized program that helps you monitor your credit and financial accounts, and assistance with identity theft recovery.

Some services charge monthly/yearly fees. No 100% guarantee against all fraud or identity theft. Risk of neglecting other credit precautions.

Although credit monitoring helps you in several ways, there are some limitations too. Most services do not completely safeguard your credit card data. Credit monitoring will only alert you about inquiries but cannot prevent someone from using your identity to apply for credit.

In the U.S., 86% of surveyed consumers stated that it is at least moderately important to monitor their credit, with three in 10 saying it's extremely important. More than half of consumers (58%) report monitoring their credit at least once per month, with 22% and 10% checking weekly and daily, respectively.

Credit monitoring can help alert you to identity theft

Using a credit monitoring service can help alleviate the headaches that come with trying to restore your identity after it's been stolen. Credit monitoring helps you act immediately whenever anything suspicious occurs.

What does Dave Ramsey recommend for identity theft protection? ›

This benefit is one of the many reasons Dave Ramsey recommends Zander for identity theft protection. You can explore more information about what Dave recommends for term life insurance, home insurance, auto insurance and disability insurance.

Canadian social insurance numbers are not covered. All other features of lifelock is offered to Canadians. Telus is advertising it as part of most of their Internet Security plans, as on https://www.telus.com/en/online-security?linktype=ge-meganav.

Credit monitoring is a basic service in which you receive alerts whenever a company notices suspicious activity on your credit reports. Identity theft protection services, though, not only monitor your credit reports, but also look for fraudulent purchases or activity with your online bank or credit card accounts.

Identity theft insurance typically costs between $25 and $60 a year.

"It is now very common for people to fall victim of identity theft," said Sue Labine, a supervisor with the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre. "It is definitely serious." Labine said in 2021, the centre received 27,531 reports of identity fraud and 11,094 reports of identity theft within Canada.

Wallet. Carry only essential ID such as your driver's licence and health card. Leave your SIN card, passport and birth certificate in a safe place. Do not let private organizations make copies of your ID documents unless there is a legitimate need and you know that they will be protected adequately.

Offences under s. 403 [identity fraud] are hybrid. If prosecuted by indictment, the maximum penalty is 10 years incarceration. If prosecuted by summary conviction, the maximum penalty is 2 years less a day jail and/or a $5,000 fine (from Sept 19, 2019).