To cut to the quick, every person in your family that has a Social Security number is at risk and should be considered for identity theft protection.
Children and spouses make excellent credit theft candidates. It’s not uncommon for married women to use their husband’s credit much more than their own. If this sounds like you, it might be a long time before you realize your identity has been plundered. Many people only check their credit reports every year or so. That’s a long time for a thief to take advantage of your good credit.
Spouses who do keep active credit are no different than any other person who wants to protect a credit rating. Our common mantra – “Protecting your identity is much cheaper than repairing it, and a lot less stressful!”
Another point to keep in mind is that children who have Social Security Numbers are just as vulnerable as anyone to credit fraud. In fact, it can be argued that they are the ideal candidates. Many children get a SSN Card at a young age, often applying before they leave the hospital, then it’s not used years. Identity thieves are aware of that pattern, which has resulted in thousands of kids having their pristine credit records abused. When the time comes for them to apply to collage or for a student loan they discover there is no credit, just debt.
Our advice is simple: Everyone in the household with a Social Security Number should have an alert placed on their respective credit files. Although you can do this, it’s a lot easier to hire one of the services to make sure it gets done correctly
LifeLock has an excellent program where children can be covered for a fraction of the cost to adults, and Debix has recently launched a similar offer (isn’t competition great). You can learn more about Lifelock’s identiy protection for children in our Lifelock review.
The peace of mind that comes with having every ID in your family protected is worth the price.