Credit Monitoring deals only with your credit and the information on your credit reports. When something strange shows up here, it's usually after the Identity theft has already happened. The thief takes out a loan for a credit card with your information, and it won't show up on your credit reports until after he hasn't paid the bill and it goes delinquent.
Items on your credit report are usually things such as credit cards, loans, mortgage payments-- financial items. But that's not every aspect of your Identity. Your Identity is your name, your address, and your phone number, and these things are not covered by your credit reports. They won't tell you if a thief filled out a National Change of Address form without your knowledge. They won't tell you if an illegal immigrant is using your SSN to get work. They won't tell you if your credit card number is being used online in black market websites. Or if they do tell you any of these things, it will be months after the fact.
If a thief uses your SSN but with a different name to fill out an application, the credit bureaus won't necessarily pick up on that because the Social Security Administration doesn't reveal who's attached to which SSN. Not even to the credit bureaus. The only way the bureaus would find out is if their computers do enough searches until the file eventually becomes attached to your report. This could take months, and in the meantime the thief would get thousands of dollars.
Credit Monitoring can be free, if you only do it once a year. Everyone is entitled to a free credit report from each of the three credit bureaus (Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion), but only every 12 months. Once a year is not often enough. People lose their Identities every day. How do you know it's you if you only check your report once a year?
If you're considering any of the many Identity theft protection services out there, make sure you choose one that does not only do Credit Monitoring, but also monitors all aspects of your Identity, especially your SSN. Thieves can go far with just an SSN and cause a lot more damage than just stealing your credit card. The point is, don't expect your Identity to be protected by only credit monitoring. Your Identity is about a lot more than just credit.
