Debix Launches
I’m also really excited to share the news that my friends at Debix [http://www.debix.com/] have launched their service, and it’s now available to the public. It is, in my opinion, the best identity theft preventative measure available today, and you should seriously consider signing up [link to http://debix.com/products_services.htm no longer works].
The way it works is that they put a lock on your credit file, so that creditors opening new accounts need to contact you, through Debix, in order to open a new account. This is better than a standard fraud alert because Debix maintains records. So if someone opens an account and you weren’t contacted, it’s not a matter of he said/she said. There’s a neutral party who can vouch for what didn’t happen. This is better than credit monitoring because you prevent problems, rather than try to clean them up.
As Bo Holland, the CEO, says, there’s nothing like putting the person who knows–you–at the center of your credit transactions.
Disclosure: I have a financial relationship with Debix.
I’ve been a beta-tester of Debix for about 8 months now, and the service is fantastic! It’s great stuff.
Umm, if they can put a lock on my credit file, why can’t I? How does that work?
Oh yeah. Arthur? When you say you have been using it for eight months and that it is fantastic, what does that mean? Have identity thieves attempted to establish credit in your name?
You can, but you don’t get the third party voice and PIN validation that Debix does. So your ability to argue that the fraud alert wasn’t respected is much weaker without Debix.
See their site for more detail. If you don’t think they have the right details up there, tell them.
Chris, I actually haven’t had anyone try to fraudulently try to open credit, however, I recently moved accross the country and had to open a bunch of new accounts and it was really nice to see companies following the process and having the ability to verify that I was me.