Identity Fraud in Focus quarterly report
8 min
You want to protect your employees from identity theft, but let’s face it: no protection is absolute. So when it does happen, the measure of your employees’ satisfaction will be heavily based on two factors:
How easy was the process?
How much did it cost them out-of-pocket?
With identity theft’s average out-of-pocket costs being around $1,500 — and $22,346 for medical identity theft — it’s easy to see why your program’s reimbursement strategy is so important.
In this article, we’ll put the microscope on reimbursements. You’ll be able to see the key differences between identity theft benefits and ask the right questions about reimbursements.
Does it cover pre-existing conditions?
Some people won’t know the risks until it happens to them.
As their employer, however, you don’t want them “punished” because they were targeted by a smart thief. Whether they’re new hires or longtime employees, whether they opted out of coverage in the past or never had the option before, they deserve to be free from identity theft stress and productive for your business.
That’s where coverage of pre-existing conditions comes in. Allowing your employees to take advantage of an identity theft benefit even after identity theft occurs can help remove that distraction from your workplace. Blocking employees from accessing identity theft protection only elevates the risk of it happening again.
If the identity theft benefit you’re looking at does cover pre-existing conditions, are there any strings attached? Up front fees? Different coverages or caps? Each will impact an employee’s decision to use it.
How we help: PrivacyArmor covers pre-existing conditions. When employees subscribe, we’ll help them put any identity theft problems behind them with no additional charge.
Does it cover the contents of lost wallets?
When a wallet is lost, the owner may be at a higher risk for identity theft. The protection piece of an identity theft benefit will scan for signs of misuse. But what about reimbursements?
Every card and identification may need to be reissued. Those reissue costs can add up fast, even if most of them are between $5 and $15. A driver’s license replacement can be as high as $30, depending on your state, while replacing a passport is $110. With the number of cards most Americans carry around, it’s easy to see this cost rising into three digits.
Despite this, replacing stolen identification and credit cards is an expense that’s not covered by all reimbursement plans.
How we help: PrivacyArmor covers lost or stolen card and identification replacement fees.
Does it cover stolen funds?
There’s a common misconception that stolen funds are automatically covered by identity theft insurance. They’re not.
Some identity theft programs include “recovery insurance” that will only reimburse the costs incurred during a recovery — filing fees, document requests, postage, etc.
Stolen funds can sometimes be recovered through the resolution process. Many programs rely on this, without backing it up with additional insurance. The problem is that stolen funds are often not recoverable, which means the only way for victims to get that money back is with insurance.
How we help: PrivacyArmor covers stolen funds. Once a case is resolved, we ask if anything needs reimbursed, including any stolen funds still unaccounted for. Simply supply us with any necessary receipts and we’ll submit the claim.
Does it cover HSA and 401K plans?
When identity thieves get into big money accounts like HSA and 401K plans, it can cause huge headaches for the owner.
That’s why it’s all the more important to protect your employees when it happens… but many identity theft insurance plans exempt these types of accounts from their coverage. Because the dollar amounts can run so high, covering them with insurance takes a higher level of commitment from your identity theft protection service. At the same time, banks offer fewer protections for financial accounts that are more likely to be the targets of hacking.
When the costs of identity theft threaten to overwhelm your employees is when you want your benefit to be at its strongest, not to disappear.
How we help: PrivacyArmor covers funds stolen from HSA and 401K plans. We protect your future by protecting these critical, high dollar value accounts.
Does it cover tax fraud?
Filing fraudulent tax returns is a common identity theft scheme. It offers single, big ticket payoffs for the cybercriminal…and often months of toiling with the IRS for the victim.
Eventually, most tax fraud situations may get straightened out and the proper refund issued to the proper owner. That may be why why some identity theft insurance plans ignore it. But what happens in the meantime? Many Americans may expect and depend on their tax refunds.
For this reason, some identity theft insurance plans may offer cash advances in tax fraud situations, where the victim can receive their expected refund long before their case is completed with the IRS.
How we help: PrivacyArmor offers refund advances in cases of tax fraud. Employees depending on their refunds won’t have to wait several months for the IRS to resolve their cases.
How much does it cover?
And here we come to the ultimate question: exactly how much does your insurance cover? Unfortunately, the answer is not always as straightforward as it sounds.
Deductibles in the identity theft protection industry guarantee there will be some level of out-of-pocket cost even after all claims are made and the case is fully resolved.
Exclusions such as those mentioned above may have a big impact on the reimbursement received, regardless of the total amount insured.
Restrictions can block payouts from happening when certain conditions are not met.
Capping payouts of different types can also reduce the total amount reimbursed.
Service guarantees are sometimes offered instead of insurance. Although similar, the caps on a service guarantee are based on their costs, not yours.
In short, three plans offering $25,000 identity theft insurance could provide very different payouts for the same incident. Knowing all the details of each reimbursement plan may help you compare programs and make the right decision for your business.
How we help: PrivacyArmor carries a $1,000,000 insurance policy with no deductibles. We also serve our members by removing common restrictions — such as requirements to be enrolled in financial account monitoring programs before receiving any reimbursements.
Maximize reimbursements to minimize stress
If one of your goals is to keep the distractions of identity theft out of your workplace, the best way to do it is with a program that offers the very best in reimbursement plans. When your employees know their identity theft benefit will protect them, the stress of dealing with it doesn’t have to be so disruptive.
At InfoArmor, we believe we have that plan. We believe that when your employees are victimized by identity theft, fully restoring their finances through reimbursements is simply the right thing to do.
Check out the Identity Restoration section of our Ultimate Identity Protection Comparison Guide to see how we stack up against the competition in reimbursements. Or call us to discuss why we feel that reimbursing more identity theft costs back to your employees is a better decision for your business.