Q:  Does Identity Guard accept prepaid credit cards for enrollment?

A: Currently, Identity Guard does not accept prepaid credit cards to enroll in their identity theft protection services.  They do, however, accept both debit cards and regular (non-prepaid) credit cards.  If you don't have a regular credit card, using your debit card would be the way to go.

As always, we highly recommend subscribing to a identity theft protection service such as Identity Guard.  It's a smart, proactive step to help protect your identity – one of your most valuable commodities.

Q:  Does Credit Report Monitoring include more than one credit card?

A. Yes, it does.  Credit Report Monitoring keeps tabs on any changes to your personal credit report.  Your credit report covers your entire credit history, which includes all credit cards, loans and any type of credit account you open.  It also includes public record data such as bankruptcy information, unpaid tax liens, and past due child support.

Basically, credit report monitoring is a convenient and practical way of making sure your credit history is only affected by changes YOU make.  It helps to protect you from identity theft, and some services even go a step further and provide tools to help you improve your credit score.  Our top reviewed pick is Identity Guard, because it goes beyond other services by monitoring public records for any changes in your name and checking the Internet's black market for any use of your credit cards or other personal information.

If you're interested in your current credit report score, many of our credit report monitoring service (including Identity Guard) offer a free trial. You can sign up  to see your score for free and then cancel later at no charge.  However, we do recommend you keep the service because we feel it offers real-time monitoring that is almost impossible to achieve on your own and protects you from damage to your credit history over time.

Q:   I don't have a credit or debit card. How can I still get a free credit report?

A: Contrary to popular opinion, you don't need a credit or debit card to get a free credit report.  In fact, your credit report contains more data than just credit card information.  A credit report is a record of all your credit activities, including both credit-card accounts and loans.   If you have ever taken out a car loan or mortgage, this information will be on there.  It also shows if any action has been taken against you because of unpaid bills. This information is obtained mainly from lenders, creditors, insurers, employers and other institutions with which you may have a financial relationship. Any company that issues you any type of loan (such as a mortgage or car loan) or a credit card reports to at least one and often all three credit bureaus each month.

You are entitled to one credit report per year from each of the three credit bureaus, which you can get for free at www.annualcreditreport.com, without a credit card. While getting one report from each bureau once a year is nice, we don't believe it is all that useful. Negative information getting posted to your report or identity theft can happen at any time and you will suffer the consequences unless you are notified and can act immediately. There is no way to get your credit score for free.

If you wish to purchase a credit report or subscribe to a credit monitoring service such as Identity Guard, you will generally need either a credit card or debit card. Using debit cards to make purchases online is riskier, though, since the money is coming directly out of your account. If you plan on making any purchases over the Internet, having a credit card is essential.

Q:  My friend's dad is 80 years old and retired. Somehow his grandson has gotten a hold of his social security number. Both the grandfather and his grandson have the same name. The grandson has destroyed his grandfather's credit.  How can the grandfather prosecute the grandson?

A. Identity theft is a serious matter.  Since it is already known that your friend's dad's has had his identity stolen, he needs to first protect himself.  If he hasn't already taken the following steps, he should do so immediately to prevent more damage from occurring and to help remedy what has already occurred.  After contacting the credit bureaus (steps 1 & 2) when speaking with the police (step 3) he should enter into discussions about what action he can take against his grandson.  They will be able to provide further guidance in this matter.

1) Contact each of the three credit bureaus and ask them to place a credit freeze on his credit report. There is a small fee in most states for setting a credit freeze, but it will completely lock down his credit file and insure that no further financial accounts are opened fraudulently in his name. Here is the contact information for each of the three credit bureaus:

TransUnion: 1-800-680-7289; www.transunion.com; Fraud Victim Assistance Division, P.O. Box 6790, Fullerton, CA 92834-6790

Equifax: 1-800-525-6285; www.equifax.com; P.O. Box 740241, Atlanta, GA 30374-0241

Experian: 1-888-EXPERIAN (397-3742); www.experian.com; P.O. Box 9532, Allen, TX 75013

Another option is to set a fraud alert instead of a credit freeze. A fraud alert is an annotation on your credit report that lets potential lenders know that you have reason to believe that you are an identity theft victim. While fraud alerts can be useful in many cases, his situation seems serious enough to warrant a full credit freeze.

2) Get a copy of his credit report from all three credit bureaus. His credit report will list all the financial accounts that have been opened and reported to the credit bureaus in his name. This will be very important in tracking the damage that already seems to have been done by his grandson.  He can request a free copy of his credit report from each of the credit bureaus when he sets a credit freeze or fraud alert. He can also get a credit report instantly by signing up for a free trial of a credit report service like Identity Guard. Once he has his credit reports in hand, he should review them thoroughly to identify any accounts that he doesn't recognize. Then he should contact the customer support department of each of these suspect accounts and let them know that he believes that the account has been opened fraudulently.   In this case he can name the specific offender (his grandson) and explain the situation.  Each of these companies will have a different process for dealing with the fraud, but he should make sure that each of these accounts is closed immediately.

3) File a report with your local police or sheriff's department. This is very important, especially since it seems that identity theft has already occurred.  He needs to call the non-emergency phone number for his local law enforcement agency and report the identity theft. He may be able to file his report over the phone or he may have to file it in person.  Regardless of the route he takes, it will be helpful to have supporting documentation of what has happened.  In this case that might include his grandson's information, which specific accounts have been opened, what money has been taken and what he has done to prevent future theft.  The police should also be able to guide him in how he can press charges against his grandson and possibly prosecute him.

4)  File an identity theft complaint with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). While the FTC can't provide assistance with individual identity theft cases, reporting his case can help identity patterns in identity theft crimes that can help prevent others from being victimized.  He can file an identity theft complaint with the FTC at this website:

https://www.ftccomplaintassistant.gov/

5) Consider an identity theft protection service such as Trusted ID or Identity Guard to help prevent being victimized in the future. Each of these services will help mitigate the risk of future identity theft and may be able to provide assistance with his current identity theft issues. You can see a list of all of the identity theft protection services we have reviewed at NextAdvisor.com.

Identity Guard is the only service that has received a five star rating on both our identity theft protection and credit report monitoring service comparisons. We believe that the added protection of this million dollar loss-reimbursement insurance policy makes the service an even better value for consumers that are looking to keep a close eye on their credit health while protecting their identity online and in the real world.

You can learn more about Identity Guard and other identity theft protection services or credit report services by visiting our reviews and comparisons.

Q: I am trying to select the best credit report monitoring service for my needs and have questions. Can I call you?

A: We would love to be able to address individual questions for each person who visits our website. Unfortunately, it would literally be impossible for us to do so given the many hundreds of thousands of consumers that visit our site each month. So we try to focus on having as much detailed information as possible on our website about each service.

When it comes to selecting a credit reporting service there are a couple of things to consider depending on whether your primary goal is to:

• Monitor your credit for any changes as cheaply as possible.
• Receive specific information about your current credit health (particularly if you are going to be applying for a loan in the near future).
• Have on-going access to as much information about your credit as possible.

If you are looking for a cheap way to monitoring your credit, then FreeCreditReport.com is probably your best bet. While this service only provides access to your Experian credit reports and scores (versus all three reports and scores like some other services), it does monitor your credit file at all three bureaus (Experian, Equifax and TransUnion) and alerts you as soon as any changes are posted for just $12.00 per month. This ensures that you can address any negative changes to your credit reports at the earliest possible moment.

If you are in the process of securing a loan or credit of any sort, we would suggest signing up for Equifax with Score Power. Not only does this service provide three bureau monitoring, it also gives you access to your FICO score (based off of your Equifax credit file) which is the type of credit score that most lenders use when make lending decisions. Equifax with Score Power also offers a free three bureau credit report and free FICO score when you sign up for a 30 day free trial, as well as unlimited Equifax credit reports for paying members (the service costs $14.95 per month after the free trial period).

Finally, if you want access to credit report and score data from all three credit bureaus plus three bureau credit reporting monitoring, then we would suggest Identity Guard. This service also has some great features, like free Internet security software for your PC, that will help protect your identity online and in the real world. Identity Guard offers free credit reports and scores from all three bureaus when you sign up for a 30 day free trial, then just costs $14.99 per month thereafter. You will receive all three credit reports and credit scores each quarter as a paying member.

You can learn more about these services and others by visiting our comparison and reviews of credit report monitoring services.

Q: I have Norton security on my computer,if I want to download Identity Guard total ptotection in place of Norton will the Identity Guard program automaticaly remove the Norton program and install it self?

A: Identity Guard's Internet security software, which is powered by ZoneAlarm, will not automatically remove your existing anti-virus protection program. We would recommend installing the Identity Guard provided ZoneAlarm software first and then manually removing your Norton Internet security software once you have confirmed that the ZoneAlarm software was properly installed. This will ensure that your PC is never without Internet security protection.

We would suggest following the removal instructions provided by Norton when removing that software from your PC since the process can vary based off of your operating system and the version of the software you are running. That being said, the standard process to manually uninstall a software program from a Windows PC is as follows:

• Click on the "Start" button in the lower right hand of your screen and select "Control Panel" from the menu.
• Double click on "Add or Remove Programs".
• Find the specific software product you would like to uninstall and click on the "Remove" button.
• Follow the on-screen instructions provided by the software provider.
• After you have completed the uninstall process, you will be prompted to restart your computer.
• After restarting your PC, the uninstalled software should be completely removed from your system.

Q: Can I cancel after the 30-day free trial if I am not happy with [Identity Guard] at no cost?

A: If you are unhappy with Identity Guard, you can cancel within the 30 day free trial at no cost. If you do not cancel within the 30 day period, you will be charged $14.99 per month that you continue your membership. You are free to cancel after the 30 free trial has ended, but you will not be entitled to a refund. To cancel your membership, simply call Identity Guard's customer service center at 1 (800) 452-2541.

To learn more about Identity Guard or other credit report services, see our reviews and comparison chart.

Q: What is the most recommended software?

A: Our top rated Internet security software package is Identity Guard with ZoneAlarm. Identity Guard is different than any of of the other products we have reviewed because it includes not just a full Internet security software suite to protect your PC, but also three bureau credit report monitoring and other features to help protect your identity. Identity Guard is priced differently than other security software suites as well. After a free 30 day trial you will be charged $14.99 per month. However, the ZoneAlarm security software is yours to keep whether or not you decide to become a paying member of Identity Guard (keep in mind that you won't receive any of the updated virus definitions if you decide to cancel your Identity Guard membership).

If you are looking for a more traditional Internet security software option, we suggest McAfee. McAfee offers an excellent set of tools to protect your PC and is confident enough in its service that it offers a 30-day money back guarantee. If you are unsatisfied with the software for any reason they will refund your money, no questions asked. Additionally, McAfee is currently 50% off standard price for a limited time, so it is also a great deal at just $39.95 per year.

You can learn more about Identity Guard, McAfee and other providers by visiting our reviews and comparison of Internet security software services.

Q: Would it be $14.99 per month each for a husband and wife to sign up for Identity Guard?

A: Yes. A husband and wife would each need to sign up for separate Identity Guard accounts which each would cost $14.99 per month after a thirty day free trial. The reason that separate accounts are required is that the husband and wife will each have totally separate credit files with each of the three credit bureaus.

You can learn more about the many features of Identity Guard and other credit report monitoring services by visiting our reviews and comparison at NextAdvisor.com