Personal identity theft has become a lot more newsworthy lately. Some experts say that it's receiving much more attention than it should. It has become so common in the news that there is now an insurance to cover it called personal identity insurance. What Personal Identity Theft Insurance Covers The insurance itself generally costs about $25 to $50 per year and covers from $15,000 to $25,000 of costs including lost wages from time to taken off from your job to deal with the fraud problem. Coverage for job loss is usually capped at $500 per week for a maximum of four weeks. This insurance may also cover some legal fees.
Some personal identity theft insurance coverage may extend to notary and certified mailing costs for filling out and delivering fraud affidavits to the parties involved. Fees for reapplying for loans and credit cards that were turned down due to erroneous credit information are usually covered to a certain extent by this type of insurance. Any long distance charges to banks etc.
to discuss the fraud can also be covered. While this may seem like a good deal for the price, consumers need to keep in mind a few things. First of all, identity theft is very unlikely.
In fact the likelihood of being a victim of identity theft is just 0.35%. This makes identity theft a very unlikely occurrence. Secondly, although the coverage from personal identity theft insurance may seem to be extensive, when broken down into its parts it is really not very beneficial.
For example, although the lost wage coverage sounds good, it is only $500 per week (less than what many people would need to replace) and it does not take into account the fact that many people would not be able to take that much time off of their jobs. Personal identity theft coverage doesn't fix your credit or criminal record as home or auto insurance might do. It strictly helps with the expenses so you can fix it on your own. The expenses entailed generally don't surmount $1,000 so you may find that purchasing a policy is of no benefit.
Are you looking for more tips about how you can stop identity theft? Get more helpful information about how to protect yourself from this and other online security threats at the Online Security Toolkit website.
