Just found out that a bunch of credit card companies actually offer free identity theft protection and I had no idea. Like, I've been paying for separate services when apparently my card issuer could've been covering this the whole time.

So American Express has this thing called My Credit Guide - doesn't matter if you even have their card, anyone can use it. You get your credit score from TransUnion and alerts if anything sketchy happens on your report. Pretty solid for catching fraud early.

Capital One's CreditWise is similar but honestly kind of wild because it actually checks if your Social Security number is floating around on the dark web. That's the kind of thing that actually makes me sleep better at night. They give you weekly updates too.

Chase and Discover have their own versions - Credit Journey and Discover Credit Scorecard respectively. Chase will literally alert you if your data gets breached or someone tries to verify your identity. Discover's is mainly for cardholders now, but you get monitoring on your Experian report and dark web scanning.

The crazy part? All these credit cards with identity theft protection features are completely free. No hidden charges. I feel like most people don't even know these exist. If you're worried about identity theft - and honestly, who isn't anymore - might be worth checking if your card issuer has something similar. Could save you from a whole headache down the line.

Anyone else using any of these? Do they actually work or is it just peace of mind?