In the morning news:

Home Depot will give you free credit monitoring (for how long I'm not sure) If you have shopped there and used credit.IMPORTANT You need to sign up at a HD store. DO NOT respond to any E-mail that claims they are from HD and you can do it on line.

Thanks for the heads up, Hollis! It amazes me that people still get suckered by these kinds of email/phone scams. The media, the work place, and every technology instructor in high school and college have been warning folks about internet scams for almost TWO DECADES, but still people fall for it. It would be unbelievable except that it still happens!

Once again, I take a minute to tell folks to ponder what pro-active steps you're taking to protect yourself and those you love. Checking your credit report a couple of times a year is not sufficient because your ID can be stolen in ways that don't affect your credit. Consider getting an ID theft protection plan of some kind, because my opinion is it's not a matter of IF your ID gets stolen, misused or abused but WHEN.

Case in point: my wife's debit card number and PIN were stolen back in Feb and used down in Texas. We haven't been to TX in over a decade, and neither of us even know our PINs for this particular account. We change them and shred the paperwork first thing when they come to us in the mail. Some data geek outfoxed our "foolproof" system. Thankfully, our credit union noticed an irregular pattern of charges and notified us within 48 hours. We were able to shut off the card and get the $500 of charges reversed. But that was our wake-up call!

My family uses Zander ID Theft Protection Plan. For the per month cost of a cheeseburger and ice tea at Applebees, we get up to $1 million in coverage and a highly skilled case worker assigned to us to help resolve any issues where our personal information is mistakenly or fraudulently used for any reason whatsoever. It's just nuts NOT to have this kind of protection!

If you go directly to their website it explains what they are offering and the product. You do not need to speak with anyone and it is easy. On the HD site you put in your name and email and in 24-48 hours they send you a link to the monitoring service that they have. It is free for 1 year.

The site is called AllClear ID and they have several steps to help protect your identity if you want the service. It does NOT give you credit reports like the others do if that is what you were looking/hoping for.

Actually, the proper online location to sign up for the credit monitoring offered is here:

homedepot.allclearid.com

You give them your name and email -- and they email you a free code good for their "Pro" credit monitoring service through September of 2015.

This is linked to directly by Home Depot from their corporate web site for stores to read about the breach:

corporate.homedepot.com/mediacenter/pages/statement1.aspx

Don't call Home Depot -- because those reps know very little, as Marv said. Just sign up online and then use the AllClearID service if you want it.

- John...

Sorry for saying most of the same as ADMM there. We were typing at the same time apparently as I didn't see his post until AFTER I had posted mine.

- John...

Interesting thing about this discussion is my CC company and home bank that has my debit card/checking account was so quick (less than 36 hours) to suspend my debit when I went on vacation out west.

A friend had it happen while moving his kids to college. Rented a moving van and filled up the tank in his car following it. Next time he went to fill the tank his card had been shut down for suspicious activity. I told him didn't he know that Texas is a foreign country (KIDDING!!)

There's a happy medium here, folks.

Indeed -- my credit card company actually sent me a message notifying me that my card had been used at HD during the breach period, but that they had no indication of fraudulent activity. They actually said that I COULD get a new card if I wanted to, but I could just keep it as it is if I wanted too and probably be fine. It noted, of course, that if my card was later used, as long as I reported it, I wouldn't be responsible for any of the charges.

So, currently, I don't plan on getting a new one. Just not worth the hassle for me since I use the card as an auto-pay on several sites. So, I'm not going to pre-emptively do anything on this one.

- John...

These "breech" stories are becoming too common.

Breach, not "breech", Brad, unless we are talking about childbirth. ;)

Remember, the grammer police are always watching!

"Remember, the grammer police are always watching!"

Ummm, not to be the spelling police, but it's "grammar", not "grammer". ;-)

As for this Home Depot issue and similar ID theft cases, I always try to use cash, but sometimes it is not practical. For example, I don't want to withdraw thousands of dollars and then take it around with me while shopping for renovation supplies. And, unfortunately, none of the places I typically shop at offer a cash discount.

With regards to credit cards, you often have ID theft protection built right into the card. You should _NOT_ be paying when your card is stolen. You need to call it, report it, and let it get sorted out. With debit cards is different and there is usually a limit on how much coverage you have. But for credit cads, you should study the policy and know what protections you have.

This being said, perhaps there is a place for insurance (e.g. Zander, which Sid didn't mention is a product pushed by Dave Ramsey in commercials and also during his show).

But the insurance isn't _really_ about removing your liability. You are NOT liable for fraudulent charges on your card, ever, unless you fail to report it for 30-60 days (depends on your card policy and on the state you are in).

What Zander and these policies do is help you clean up the mess. They help you do what you could do yourself. These policies are good if you're super busy or if you really don't want to deal with the process. They make sense, they have a purpose, but they are not what prevents you from liability. CC companies are not able to make you pay when you are defrauded. You need to report the crime, deal with the process, and then follow up.

And, as I mentioned above, debit cards have a different level of protection. This is why you shouldn't keep too much money in a checking account linked to a debit card. Keep a couple thousand in checking and put the rest in a non-linked savings account of some type.