Two questions: have you shopped at Home Depot since April of this year? And did you use a credit card? Then you can request a free year of Equifax right now.
Ramping up to potentially be one of the biggest data breaches of history, Home Depot has recently confirmed that their data has indeed been hacked and, in an attempt to rectify the situation, is offering full support and a free year of Equifax Premier. Even if you don't think that your information has been compromised, I definitely suggest taking advantage of this Equifax Premier freebie as it's a service that would otherwise cost $19.95 per month for a total of $239.40 annually. To get it, you need to call Equifax at 866-205-0679 (or 866-466-9577 for French) and you will then be given an Equifax promo code to redeem for your free annual subscription.
The long list of benefits from the Equifax Premier plan includes but is not limited to:
- Around the clock credit monitoring for suspicious charges
- Up to 50,000 of identity theft insurance
- WebDetect: receive an alert if your information (i.e. SIN or credit number) is used online
- Unlimited access to Equifax credit report & credit score
I have to admit that I'm definitely surprised that this Equifax plan includes unlimited access to credit reports and credit scores, especially since the Equifax Advantage plan only includes 4 per year and even then, it's restricted to just one per quarter. For this benefit alone, I plan on calling Equifax as I have been one of the ones to have shopped at Home Depot since April and used a credit card.
This data breach is particularly important for online shoppers as it appears that online payments were the most targeted as chip-and-pin credit cards are much less vulnerable to the data theft. In any case, it would definitely be a good idea to not only take a couple of minutes to get the free annual subscription to Equifax Premier, but to also have a look at all of your credit card statements since April to make sure that there are no fraudulent charges.
If you see any suspicious transactions, then make sure to sort those out immediately with your bank. Keep in mind that if you need assistance sorting any suspicious transactions, then Home Depot has partnered with AllClear ID to help you, but be careful of any phishing or phone call scams offering this service for a fee as it's absolutely free.
Moosers, how many of you have shopped at Home Depot since April? Do you plan on taking advantage of this freebie?
(Image Credit: Mike Mozart)
(Expiry: Unknown)
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