Identity theft insurance can protect you from identity theft losses just like auto insurance can protect you from auto-related losses and home insurance can protect you from home-related losses.  It doesn’t reimburse you for money that is stolen from you.  This type of insurance is one particular product companies have begun to offer consumers in response to the growing threat of identity theft.  At a minimum provides the peace of mind for consumers that should they ever experience identity theft they will have immediate assistance to remedy the situation.

Policies offer coverage up top $10,000 or $15,000, and sometimes cover lost wages up to a certain amount for when you take time off work to remedy your situation.  It is one of the fastest growing policies in the insurance industry today, and when doing the math, some wonder if the low cost of the a policy is worth the annual premium.  Policies typically cover the various expenses incurred in seeking to defend an insured’s name and reinstate their credit status after fraudulent activity and the date of loss is determined from the first fraudulent transaction identified and / or any physical or electronic record with any of your financial institutions.  Reimbursable expenses can include lost wages, fees and business costs of clearing your credit report and other financial dealings related to the fraud, and some legal fees as approved by the insurer and can often be added to an existing policy for homeowners.  Identity theft insurance is meant to provide its victims some support in terms of finance and insurance to cope with the damage they face due to this theft and typically requires that you pay a small premium every month.

ID theft services save you the time and inconvenient hassles inevitably associated with protecting yourself from ID theft.  Depending on your policy, your identity theft insurance may also cover the cost of phone bills related to the identity theft occurrence, lost wages, certified mailing costs, and notary services.  If you do decide to buy identity theft or credit monitoring services, be sure you know exactly what you’re getting for your money.  These recovery services eliminate the time consuming and frustrating experience of dealing with identity theft.  The market is being flooded with identity theft insurance, credit monitoring plans, and other services, and our mailboxes are being flooded with offers to buy these services and dire warnings of what could happen if we don’t.  While they do not provide insurance in the traditional sense, identity theft protection companies offer a guarantee for their services, and your chosen service provider holds sole responsibility for the guarantee.

Coverage for all claims or losses depends on actual policy provisions.  Your homeowners’ insurance policy may already cover you.  An insurance policy should cover the cost of reapplying for a loan, along with the cost of removing negative items from your credit report.  A policy with a high deductible may not be worth the cost.  The good news is that a policy is usually not a huge investment, and you can add it to your existing homeowner’s insurance policy for less than $50 a year.  On average, a policy will cost between twenty dollars and fifty dollars a year for twenty-five thousand dollars worth of  coverage.  In general,  a policy will reimburse victims of identity theft for the costs involved with restoring their identity and repairing their credit reports.  You should make sure that the policy you purchase is truly doing the job for which it is designed for your advantage.  Besides peace of mind for a relatively small cost, it helps a victim recover by providing reimbursement for expenses such as repairing their credit report, recovering lost wages, phone bills, mailing costs, and attorney fees depending on the policy chosen.

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 4th, 2009 at 1:02 am and is filed under Identity Theft. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.