So I've already had all my personal info stolen (it's called identity theft, and it's common with data breaches) when a big bank had millions of accounts breached. Same type of personal info has been breached from lots of big companies/organizations (Facebook, OPM, etc). So my "irrational fear" has nothing to do with my "liability"; it has everything to do with wasting endless hours dealing with my info being stolen, then sold, then used by dirtbags to buy crap that's charged to me.
But if your bank is hacked they'd already have all your info.
you might be too afraid to use a computer, but your bank isn't.
And if you have credit at all then the credit bureaus have all your info electronically stored too.
So does virtually every company you still write antique paper checks out to.
Not to mention- if you did all this online you'd never have to waste "endless hours" dealing with it. It'd take 30 seconds to report fraud on a card, and you're done.
Ironically, a common cause of ID theft is folks
not doing online banking.
Since they're still back in the last century getting paper statements and such it's common for their info to be stolen that way (and on the back end when they toss out that paperwork)
And one of the best ways to prevent ID theft is a credit freeze... which is quick and easy to do online... (and, much like banking, a lot more of a pain to do the old fashioned way).
Yes, I know I have $0 liability by law, but the law doesn't stop identity theft from occurring, which then has follow-on issues. And yes, I also already pay for a third-party service (LifeLock) to track any future misuse of my data and identity.
*rotfl*
I've also got a cool bridge to sell you. Cheap.
First- you won't give your electronic info to your bank, but you gave it to lifelock? Bad news!
LifeLock Security Bug Puts Millions of Customer Emails at Risk
Experian said:
LifeLock customers may be at risk for phishing attacks, thanks to a bug on one of the firm's marketing pages that could have exposed customers' emails.
But apart from that irony... as Consumer Reports points out you get arguably more benefit than paying LL by just doing a credit freeze. Which is often free.
Is LifeLock Worth the Cost?
All LL does is "watch" your ID and let you know when someone engaged in fraud.
Which you'd have found out free just by paying attention- or likely avoided entirely with credit freezes.
In fact LL had to pay a $100 million fine to the FTC for overselling what they really did
And that wasn't the first time they've been in trouble with the FTC for conning people afraid to use online services like yourself-
No Longer Trust LifeLock? What's a Consumer to Do?
I didn't blame Tesla for anything other than the double-charge of my $2,500 order payment. And then when I called and waited on hold for a very long time, the Tesla employee could only admit that they had received my previous email to Customer Support about the double-charge, and he was quite surprised that no one from Tesla ever contacted me to do something about it. Then he said it would take 30-60 business days to correct and refund from their end. So that's when I then disputed the charge on my end with my VISA. I also didn't want to initiate the dispute first and have Tesla think I was canceling my order on my 3 (since they only sent me confirmation for one $2,500 order payment). Anyway, let's please call a truce and be done hijacking this guy's thread, as he simply wanted feedback of real-life stories of what to expect in getting his $1k back. I had a real-life, relevant anecdote to share with him (i.e., Tesla told me I may have to wait 30-60 business days...for all portions of my $6k paid to Tesla via reservation deposit and two order payments). Perhaps I didn't need to give all the details of my story, but I figured it might apply to others (as I don't think I'm the only Tesla customer who has ever been double-charged.). I certainly didn't mean to waste everyone's time having a dispute over this nonsense. End of story
Fair enough.... that said, it's your money and time, but I'd suggest you stop wasting it on lifelock, move into the electronic banking era so you don't need 3 calls and paperwork to dispute a charge, and throw freezes on your credit reports if you're concerned about ID theft... (it takes like 2 minutes to temporarily lift them if needed to open new credit and offers a ton more preventative protection than LL does)
