[Bigboomer]

As previously stated you can do most of the protections yourself. Simply call the three credit reporting agencies (Experian, TransUnion and Equifax) and place a creidt freeze on your accounts. This is free. Only a freeze can prevent someone from opening up an account with your ID. Even you cannot open an account unless you lift the credit freeze. Depending on where you live lifting the freeze may cost you between $5 and $15 for each of the reporting agencies but it is well worth it. You can lift it for specific periods of time such as 1 hour, 1 day or several weeks or months depending on why you need it lifted. Usually takes about 15 minutes with either a phone call or online.

One drawback is a lot of insurance companies are using credit scores to determine your rates and if you have a lock on the report they cannot access so you rates may reflect the fact they don't know how good your credit is (this practice is debatable and for another topic).

As Orv said "If you don't think you need it you don't purchase it. No one can really advise you as to what you should do."

In addition to this process we also have two laptops, one for general everyday things such as web browsing, online purchases, etc. Then we purchased a smaller one for just our online banking that is "only" used for that. NO web surfing or online purchases with this one at all. We have Norton 360 anti-virus and utilities and scan and use the utilities to remove all tracking cookies, etc. after each session on each laptop.

This may seem over the top but it beats the alternative!

Good Luck in your decisions!

Les