I received an email the other day asking whether giving ID Theft protection was a good gift idea. My first reaction was what a terrible gift idea. Who would want that?
Well, the more I thought about it the more I warmed up to the idea off offering ID protection as a gift. With all the financial worries and the increase of ID theft what is the price of receiving a peace of mind gift.
The last thing someone wants to know is that their financial data has been stolen and their credit is ruined. So why this isn't the get up and do a happy dance type of gift. It is one of those, type of gifts where you are likely to receive a thank you 2, 3 or 4 months down the road when they learn the real value of your gift.
I looked at the leader in the industry LifeLock and saw they offer Proactive Identity Theft Protection, reduction of junk mail and credit card offers, a guarantee and it costs $10 per month or $110 per year.
If you get the service for children is runs a lot less. However, there may be an age limit to this.
Where this can be a good gift.
Parents to sons and daughters who are now young adults and really don't think about identity theft. This is a good education tool and one that can help them the rest of their lives.
Children to parents that have everything, well if they have everything than they really should have this type of protection.
And it can be a good gift for Grandparents who are on the internet. Often, grandparents and seniors forget that they may be at risk. This gift helps to remind them to take precautions.
Another option that costs less, but doesn't offer quite as much information is Annual Credit Report, this is the site where you can get your credit report free once a year from each of the major credit agencies.
While this is a great service, if your identity gets stolen who has 12 months to learn about it. So being able to check when you want to is extremely helpful.
While visiting the Lifelock site, I noticed you could not purchase it as a Gift. So I called customer service and they said the it can be found in retailers like Best Buy and other Office Supply stores and it is packaged as a gift with a dvd and code to assess the site.
That sounds good to me but with many things, I found myself interested in signing up for the service myself.
While I think LifeLock is a valuable gift, it is a hard one to put under the tree and get excited about. However, it might be the perfect gift to test run yourself and then offer to give to family members.
Have a safe and secure Holiday Season
The Gift Guy - Gift Idea Center
