Credit bureaus have services that are supposed to alert you if your identity has been stolen. But, our partners at Consumer Reports have analysis of more than a dozen of these bureaus, and they say their services come up short.

Melody Millett knows the pain of identity theft. It took nearly 14 years to find out that someone had stolen her husband's Social Security number.

"The information was used to take out car loans, make credit cards, buy houses. Pretty much any kind of financial transaction you can imagine, my husband's identity has been used for -- without our consent," Millet said.

There are credit monitoring services that promise to protect against identity theft. The three major credit bureaus, Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion sell these services for $60 to $180 a year. But Consumer, which just assessed 16 services, said they aren't worth it.

"Our analysis shows that these services, as they're currently designed, are often overpriced, oversold, and overrated," said Greg Daugherty of Consumer Reports.

Consumer Reports found half of the services monitor only one of the major credit bureaus. But a single bureau rarely has all your credit information. And there is a bigger problem.

"Credit monitoring services can't always tell if somebody else is using your Social Security number," Daugherty said.

Another, newer type of service goes further. ID fraud prevention and detection services also search online chat rooms and public records -- looking for ID theft, including Social Security number fraud.

Consumer Reports said while it is too soon to tell how well these services will work, they seem promising.

But something you can do that doesn't cost a thing is freeze your credit reports so ID thieves can't open any accounts.

And Melody Millett said you should closely monitor your credit information and be aware small discrepancies could spell big trouble.

"If you call up your credit card company and they now tell you that you live six blocks from where you currently live, that should be a warning sign that something's up," Millett said.

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