My MIL got a notice of a data breach from a health provider. I went over her credit report with her online, nothing out of the ordinary. Also utilized a credit monitoring service on her credit card and there were a few "alerts" of her SS# being exposed on the Dark Web. She is a widower and tends to worry about these sort of things to the point of panic.

Would a credit freeze or lock be a better option to try to appease her worries? She has a steady stream of pension income and doesn't finance anything so access to credit really isn't a need at this point. TIA

Everyone's data is everywhere at this point, but at least AT&T gave us a free $10 gift card for the trouble.

There's no reason not to freeze credit reports:

Experian
Transunion
Equifax

I also do NCTUE (telecom & utilities)

Once you freeze them they'll send you a document you basically just have to call a # to unfreeze and refreeze them. Super easy. You can freeze them by calling a # on each one, should be on their website.

I use LifeLock and gives me some piece of mind and is cheap. The elderly are more likely to get scammed with their cash vs credit, but if it helps calm her nerves, a credit monitoring system is worth it.

Lifelock is a waste of money. Freeze your credit. There is no reason for anyone not to do that.

I'll second Lifelock being a waste of money. They'll inform you of a change in credit after-the-fact but won't be able to stop something up front like a freeze can. Freezes and thaws have been free for awhile now (by law) and can even be managed online instead of having to call in each time for a thaw. For example, when I financed a portion of my last vehicle, I logged in to Experian's website to unthaw my credit while I had finance on the phone, once the credit check was done I refroze my credit. When financing it simply requires you to ask up front which bureau they use for credit checks. As stated above and with some additional ones, it's a good idea to freeze:

• Experian
• Transunion
• Equifax
• Innovis - lesser known credit bureau
• NCTUE - for cell carriers
• ChexSystems - bureau checked when opening new bank accounts

And where possible, plant your flag and create an online account with any bureau to manage freezes before someone else can.

Second the "ditch lifelock and freeze your credit" crowd. We just bought a house and had our company line of credit renew at roughly the same time. I unfroze all three for about two weeks so the banks could do their thing and they refroze automatically last week after both had closed. I've had lots of applications fail over the years due to frozen credit so it definitely works.

TxAG#2011 said:

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Everyone's data is everywhere at this point, but at least AT&T gave us a free $10 gift card for the trouble.

There's no reason not to freeze credit reports:

Experian
Transunion
Equifax

I also do NCTUE (telecom & utilities)

Once you freeze them they'll send you a document you basically just have to call a # to unfreeze and refreeze them. Super easy. You can freeze them by calling a # on each one, should be on their website.

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Freezing is easy and easy to thaw for any credit checks.

Now in regards to your AT&T comment, yeah $10 credit and then raised my monthly bill to cover it.