YOU DO NOT NEED CREDIT MONITORING SERVICES!!!!! Recently, Adobe got hacked and sent an email to its subscribers, offering (at a cost) the Experian Credit Monitoring Service to those who got hacked. Of course the victim would have to pay Experian. Good marketing, huh! Well, there is a big problem with the credit monitoring services: BINDING ARBITRATION! You lose your rights to sue in court under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (“FCRA”), and the agreement you inadvertently sign essentially takes away your rights under FCRA. CREDIT MONITORING IS UNNECESSARY.
This is a short note from Chi Chi Wu, an attorney with the National Consumer Law Center in Boston and a recognized national expert on credit reporting and the Fair Credit Reporting Act, on this subject:
“We generally advise consumers not to pay for a credit monitoring service. In addition to the arb issue, they don’t seem like a good “value” proposition. (of course, if it is free, then that’s a different story)
“If a consumer is concerned after a security breach about ID theft, we usually advise placing a security freeze instead. But I am not sure if a breach of credit card information would lead to “new account” ID theft, although would be interested to hear if it does.”