Do we really need credit protection when the credit card companies are looking out for their customers?

It's hard to listen to the radio or watch TV these days without hearing or seeing a commercial for a service wanting to protect us from identity theft. If they could do it, they would probably arrange to have the commercials played right after one of those all too frequent news reports about a huge data breach. Like this one.

But the idea of someone using a person's personal information to apply for credit, while conceivable, probably isn't very practical considering how cautious companies are about extending credit.

So should we be worried that someone will purloin our identities and get credit cards with it? I have my doubts. This is a personal anecdote and may not have general application. But here it is. The other day I purchased something at Walmart.com for the first time. My credit card number was declined. After the third try, I phoned the credit card company to find out why. Turns out the credit card fraud department had flagged the transaction and triggered the rejection. Why was it flagged? No reason other than that the card information was used at Walmart.com. Odd.

Walmart probably doesn't appreciate business lost due to automatic fraud alerts simply for using their website for a purchase. On the other hand, Amazon must love it since Walmart is angling to take away customers who may otherwise have gone there.