Reader Question: Will my LifeLock or Equifax account also cover my spouse?

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May 12th, 2008 - Posted by Joe

This is a post in our “Reader Questions” series where we publish actual question from our community. Ask your own question by visiting our contact form.

Q: My wife and I keep all of our financial accounts in both of our names. If I sign up for LifeLock or Equifax will it also cover my spouse?

A: The short answer is that each of these services, LifeLock for identity theft protection and Equifax for credit report monitoring, will only fully cover you and your spouse if both of you are subscribers.

LifeLock makes it very simple for married couples to sign up for their identity theft protection service together since they will allow both of you to register on a single form. You can even sign your kids up for LifeLock's child identity theft protection (Editor's note: all parents should read our child identity theft protection guide to learn why they need to protection their kids from identity thieves).

Equifax does not have a shared sign-up form for married couples. However, their registration process can be completely safely and securely online. Once you have signed up you will have immediate online access to your credit report and credit score, including your FICO score which is the score that most lenders use.

We strongly suggest that both you and your spouse sign up for these services individually for full protection and insight. By only covering yourself you will not have any insight into new account identity theft perpetrated against your spouse. Additionally, both you and your wife have you own credit files. The credit bureaus do not combine them when you are married, so you will not have visibility into your wife's credit report and score if she does not sign up for credit report monitoring in her own name.