What is the best service that you recommend for credit checks and ID theft prevention/detection?

Sign up for all the ones you're offered. The more the merrier in my opinion. Many credit cards offer this for free. Also, creditkarma.com I know some are much quicker than others to notify me when I apply for a cc, but I don't recall which are normally the quickest.

I use all the free ones like mentioned above, but I pay for LifeLock.

I think the first line of defense is freezing your credit report with all the major credit reporting companies

Agreed on freezing your reports to start. In my opinion, most of these ID theft protection services are just buying you emotional safety and the benefits are really minimal. If there's any company I'd use, it would be MyFICO, with the top plan you actually get updated reports from all 3 bureaus every month + FICO scores. https://www.myfico.com/

I just applied for a cc in my wife's name, so now I can update this post. Got three rapid-fire email alerts from: • Experian IdentityWorks (possibly not free—might be from some data breach) • Chase Credit Journey (free with some/all? Chase cards) • American Express MyCredit Guide (also free with some/all amex cards) I'd give those three the win. If someone applies for something in my name, I should know within minutes and hopefully be able to deal with it before anything significant happens. I'll get more emails over the next few days and probably a few in a month or so from the other ones I'm signed up for. Re freezing, if you rarely apply for anything, I suppose that's a good option, but there are drawbacks. My friend just told me that he wasted hours unfreezing stuff when his daughter was applying for student loans and he was cosigning. Although that may have been just him, since @steep-dog-55906 had no such issues (see below). Also, keep your SSN close to your vest. Unless it's absolutely necessary, it doesn't go on paper or to humans or in emails. Only into secured online applications. Never on doctors' office forms (for multiple reasons).

Hm, I froze mine and my husband's with all 3 agencies, it took me a matter of minutes to unfreeze them when we leased a car. I'm surprised it took your friend hours.

Maybe he just had no idea what was going on 🤷‍♂️ I remember him saying that he didn't realize there's a difference between freezing and {something}, but I don't recall what. Could be that was the issue

Could be he also had to reset all his passwords 😭

Wells Fargo just came in. Give them second place lol