Update: The below promotion is now expired. The New Business Gold Rewards Card® from American Express OPEN now offers 3X points on airfare, 2X points on advertising, gas, and shipping and 1X point on everything else. The annual fee for this card is $175 but it is waived for all new cardholders. You can also get unlimited additional gold cards for an extra annual fee of $50 but this fee is waived for the first year as well.

I finally got around to opening some mail today and saw that my New Business Gold Rewards Card® from American Express OPEN arrived. I had almost forgotten I had applied for it in the whole move. (I convinced my wife to apply as we could really use the 25,000 Membership Reward sign-up bonus as frequent flier miles.)

As has been reported by other readers, the paperwork that came with it only mentions a bonus of 5,000 points after the first purchase and another 20,000 after spending $50,000. I really wanted to get to the bottom of this, so I called American Express and talked with multiple reps about the bonus. I explained to them that the wording is very clear, I have the specific bonus code, and is the offer still up after more than two weeks, so it is clearly not some unintentional misprint:

Upon the Basic Cardmember’s first purchase, a one time bonus of 25,000 points can be earned toward the Basic Business Gold Rewards Cardmember’s Membership Rewards? account and may appear as separate credits of 5,000 and 20,000 bonus points.

Most of the reps seemed like robots and just sounded confused as this wasn’t on one of their scripts, so I just ended the call quickly in that case. But two of them were familiar with this promotion, and said that they had already fielded several calls about it. The summary:

1. The same paperwork goes out to everybody, and what is mentioned is the standard, older promotion. This doesn’t mean you won’t get the 25,000 points, as this special promotion does exist and is valid.
2. The problem is that they can’t tell on their computers which promotion you signed up for. However, it should be tracked in their systems internally if you used the right link. I would keep a print-out of your page. If you want, you can call them and ask them to note specifically the Bonus ID 2329 on your account, which may help you dispute if anything does happen later.
4. Otherwise, there is really nothing you can do right now. Personally, I am confident that they will come through, as I have already scored $100 + 5,000 miles from the same card last year, and in that case nothing about any bonus was mentioned in the paperwork that came with the card! I’m just going to make my first purchase quickly, tuck it away, and wait the 6-8 weeks.

You’ve probably seen commercials for a service called LifeLock, which offers identity theft protection services ranging from $10 to $30 a month. After a $12 million settlement with the FTC over deceptive marketing practices, they are again in trouble with the FTC over… their deceptive marketing practices. The main problem that I have with this service is that they are charging you for things you could do yourself, and often you will have to do it yourself even if you pay them.

Here’s what they used to say:

First, we ask the credit bureaus to set fraud alerts on your behalf. Usually, this is done through our automated systems and the alerts are set within an hour. From time to time there may be a hitch and we have to do the first one manually, usually because they have a different address on file for you. If this happens, we’ll tell you right away and do what needs to be done to get the alerts set.

Since then, I believe the credit bureaus have gotten angry at Lifelock (making money off of your data is their job!) and now you have to set the credit freezes yourself.

Free – Just call the numbers below. Technically, alerting any single bureau should automatically initiate fraud alerts on all of them, but it may be more reliable to simply call each one separately.

* Equifax: 800-685-1111; Fraud Dept. 800-525-6285
* Experian: 888-397-3742 (same for Fraud Dept.)
* Trans Union: 800-916-8800; Fraud Dept. 800-680-7289

I should note that this will also hinder your ability to get quick approvals for things like auto loans or credit card applications. One good tip is to use your cell phone as the contact number so that the bureaus can quickly verify your identity when you really do want to apply for credit.

Second, unless your circumstances change and you tell us not to, every 90 days or so we ask the credit bureaus to do it again.

Free – Use Google Calendar (also free) to e-mail you a reminder to call again in 90 days. Rinse and repeat.

Third, we request that your name be removed from pre-approved credit card and junk mail lists and we keep making the requests as they expire. Statistics show that this is one of the most common ways that thieves hijack identities. Plus, all that mail is just so irritating. Many of our clients tell us that this alone is worth the price.

Free – Just go to OptOutPrescreen.com to get removed for 5 years. I’m probably in the minority here, but I kind of like getting pre-approved offers myself, it helps me track trends in interest rates, special offers, and gives me an idea of how good my credit score is.

Fourth, we order your free credit reports on your behalf from the major credit bureaus and they are sent directly to you. We do this every year.

Free – Yet another feature that is free to all by the Fair Credit Reporting Act, and can be found at AnnualCreditReport.com. In fact, here are 4 more ways to get a free credit report. One of them is simply placing a fraud alert as described about. If you keep setting one up every 90 days, you can technically get a total of 15 free reports every year (3 credit bureaus x 5 each).

Last, but certainly not least: If your Identity is stolen while you are our client, we?re going to do whatever it takes to recover your good name. If you need lawyers, we?re going to hire the best we can find. If you need investigators, accountants, case managers, whatever, they?re yours. If you lose money as a result of the theft, we?re going to give it back to you. We will do whatever it takes to help you recover your good name and we will spend up to $1,000,000 to do it.

Not free. But, you can get lower levels of identity theft protection for free at various financial institutions like your local credit union or at many major banks, just for having an account with them.

So, is the convenience of LifeLock, as well their $1 million dollar insurance policy worth $110-120 a year? My vote is no. Although I’m sure that identity theft can be very painful and costly, if you really did all the free things above your chances of being affected are very slim. The time saved is minimal and the “million dollar guarantee” seems to be overkill and more of a marketing ploy. If anything, I’d use the money to go buy a good paper shredder instead.