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Why don't creditors pay for things like Lifelock and other identity protection programs?*

It would seem to me that it would make most sense if creditors and banks paid for these services. After all, when all is said and done they are the ones who end up paying when identity is stolen. People may lose time and become inconvenienced but the creditors and banks are the ones forking over the cash... How does a bank get their money back if someone uses another person's identity to make hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of purchases. Do you think the stores the purchases were made from are simply going to give the money back to the bank (credit card company) ?

Answers:

1) why pay when they can get you to pay? and i don't see how you have reasoned out that the banks are the ones who end up paying. i mean, they're gonna get their money back one way or another. i would think.

2) the stores don't simply give over the money, the credit card company that processes the accounts for said store simply removes it from their account. it is the stores responsibility to accurately identify a shopper and they are charged back, its real simple

3) >> Do you think the stores the purchases were made from are simply going to give the money back to the bank (credit card company) ? << That's exactly what happens. The bank is only on the hook if their customer doesn't pay. If the merchant fails to properly identify the customer, then the merchant has to take the loss. It's called "know your customer". Besides, these things don't work. The founder of Lifelock recently had his identity stolen. If you read the fine print, they aren't really guaranteeing to protect you from anything. They just send in dome forms for you that you could handle for free yourself.

4) Haven't you noticed that periodically your credit card companies will try to get you to sign up for protection plans? They are trying to make money by charging you a monthly fee.

5) To be honest, we want more money. The less money we have to pay out the better for the bank and it's investors. Most of the time we collect the money from wherever the purchases were made (if the card was stolen) otherwise we have insurance for that so we really don't lose a cent.

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