The service offered by Equifax for "free" is virtually worthless as the hackers most likely have all the information they need anyway. Sigh. So what I've done: (1) gotten a password protection service and changed all my passwords to the ridiculously hard to recall symbols and letters. Fortunately, the password service remembers them for me. (2.) Added two factor authentication wherever and whenever possible (i.e., you need not only your log in and password, you also need a code which is texted to my phone). Going to do (but haven't yet): Put a credit freeze on my account (and DH's account) on every single service (all three of them). It costs $5 per name per service, so $30. We are at the point in our lives where we need virtually no credit. We pay cash for cars, have no mortgage, and all the credit cards we need. The exceptions are insurance and cell phones. Should we change either of those, we will need to do temporary thaws (which also cost money). I'm irritated at this, but it's the age we live in, unfortunately.
Also, irrespective of what Equifax says, I think it's important for ALL people to take these steps, even if Equifax reports they don't "think" your data has been compromised. It's just a matter of time for nearly everyone. It's happened to my data a bunch of times already. Therefore, I've become very proactive.
