The LifeLock identity theft prevention company began providing identity theft services in 2005 and calls itself the “industry leader”.

For individuals and families, the LifeLock service primarily consists of asking credit bureaus to set fraud alerts on your name and Social Security number, redoing this every 90 days; get your name removed from pre-approved credit card and junk mail lists, redoing this as the requests expire; and request free credit reports for you every year. These reports are sent directly to you.

For businesses, the company offers basically the same services, but also includes public relations support.

All of these actions are things that you can do for yourself, and really do not take all that much time. The benefit of having LifeLock do them for you is that they will actually remember to do them on a regular basis, which needs to be done as these requests do expire.

Not only that, but they will review your credit reports and verify activity that could be suspicious or evidence of identity theft, such as contacting you to ask whether or not you are actually applying for a new credit card or changing your address.

In addition, LifeLock also provides a limited guarantee that provides assistance in recovering your identity, up to a million dollars, including attorney and investigator fees, as well as any money lost due to the identity theft as a result of a failure or defect in the service.

The service costs $10 a month per adult as well as $25 per year per child under 16, should you choose that option. But note that personally freezing your credit at each of the three credit bureaus costs $10 apiece.

Now, you might be wondering why you would need to get identity theft protection for minor children. Sadly, protecting your child’s identity – even though they won’t personally have credit cards or a credit history – can be just as important as protecting your own. Identity thieves do not care how old a victim is. LifeLock recognizes this, and protects even your kids.

So is this identity theft prevention service worth the price? It depends on your needs. If you have the confidence, patience and willingness to do it yourself, it can be done for less money. However, if you are the type of person who wants peace of mind and does not want to mess with having to do the work yourself, the LifeLock service is a no brainer.