Team Clark is adamant that we will never write content influenced by or paid for by an advertiser. To support our work, we do make money from some links to companies and deals on our site. Learn more about our guarantee here.
Protecting your child’s identity is about to get a whole lot easier and cheaper thanks to a new free service in the marketplace.
Child identity theft is one of the worst forms of identity theft because it often goes unchecked and unnoticed for years. You might not have any idea until your kid applies for college loans or maybe a first apartment. Suddenly, the credit report comes back and they’re supposedly a 57 year old man who defaulted on a mortgage!
This has been a terrible burden on kids. Equifax, Experian and TransUnion’s response has been that they basically don’t care. In fact, one bureau wanted to charge parents a huge monthly fee to see if their kid’s identity may have been subject to any breaches.
Thankfully, AllClearID.com is now offering a new free service called ChildScan. The service combs through credit records, employment records, criminal records and medical accounts to find out if a crook has been using your kid’s Social Security number.
According to the 2012 Child Identity Theft Report, kids are 35 times more likely to be subject to identity theft than an adult. Meanwhile, another recent study found that one in 10 kids has his or her identity stolen by the age of 18.
Crooks target kids because they’re ideal candidates for identity theft — no credit history, but a clean Social Security number. As a parent, you want to make sure nobody messes with your children. And the sooner you find out the better because if it goes on for a decade or more, it can take years to clean up.
This post was last modified on March 22, 2017 2:18 pm
Deciding to save and invest are great habits. But once you check that box, your…
If you're considering subscribing to Fubo, you need to be comfortable missing out on some…
Are you looking for a way to earn 2% back on every purchase you make…
You're not alone if you're running a balance on your credit cards. Collectively, Americans are…
A big part of saving money comes down to knowing how to comparison shop. But…
If you work for a big company as a full-time employee, chances are you have…