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The main recovery tools cost nothing, and the money that gets spent usually goes to postage and copies. The real bill is time: calls, letters, paperwork and missed work.

This article is general information and isn’t financial or legal advice. Card terms, fees and rules change, so check the issuer’s current terms and official sources such as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Federal Trade Commission before you decide.

The essentials

1. The core identity theft recovery tools are free: a one-year fraud alert, credit reports from all three bureaus, and the FTC’s recovery plan and Identity Theft Report.
2. Small out-of-pocket costs come from certified mail, document copies and, if a creditor requires it, notarization, and they grow with the number of accounts involved.
3. The biggest cost is time: calls to fraud departments, letters, credit freezes at three separate bureaus and ongoing monitoring.
4. Not every victim loses money. The FTC reported that people lost money in 25 percent of fraud reports in 2018, with median losses ranging from $400 to $751 depending on age group.
5. Quick action limits the damage from identity theft and speeds recovery, and most of the first steps cost nothing.

When someone opens a credit card in your name or empties a bank account, one of the first questions is what fixing it will cost. The dollar answer is smaller than most people expect, because the main recovery tools are free. The heavier cost is measured in hours: phone calls, letters, copies and follow-up that stretch across banks, credit bureaus and creditors. This breakdown walks through each layer, from what costs nothing to where victims actually lose money.

First, the Good News: The Core Tools Cost Nothing

The steps that do the most work are free.

A fraud alert comes first. Contact one of the three major credit bureaus, Equifax, Experian or TransUnion, and ask for a free one-year fraud alert on your credit file. The bureau you call is required to notify the other two. The alert asks lenders to take extra steps to confirm your identity before they approve new accounts, which makes it harder for a thief to keep using your information. If you are weighing an alert against a freeze, our comparison of credit freeze vs. fraud alert explains which protection fits which situation.

Credit reports are free too. Request copies from all three bureaus through AnnualCreditReport.com and read them for accounts you did not open or inquiries you do not recognize. For the full sequence when new accounts appear, see our guide to what to do if someone opens credit in your name.

The FTC’s reporting site, IdentityTheft.gov, costs nothing as well. Filing there produces a personal recovery plan and an Identity Theft Report, and the site can auto-generate the letters you send to businesses and debt collectors. That report is the document you will hand to creditors, bureaus and collectors when you dispute fraudulent accounts.

A credit freeze is the last layer. It stops new credit from being opened in your name until you lift it, and unlike a fraud alert, it has to be requested from each of the three bureaus separately. The bureaus process freezes directly; whether any fee applies depends on your state’s rules, so confirm with each bureau before you place or lift one. If a thief might try to open bank accounts rather than credit cards, ChexSystems, the company banks use to screen new accounts, can place a fraud alert on your file there as well.

Small Out-of-Pocket Costs: Postage, Copies and Notarization

Beyond the free core sits a short list of small expenses. None is large on its own, and every one of them scales with a single variable: how many accounts and creditors are involved.

Trackable mail. Letters to creditors and debt collectors should be sent in a way you can prove later, such as certified mail with a return receipt. One fraudulent account means one letter, one receipt and one set of enclosures. Six accounts means six of everything, each with copies of your Identity Theft Report attached.

Document copies. You will make copies of your FTC report, your police report, a government-issued photo ID and account statements, again for each creditor. A police report is not always required, but it can help when a creditor or debt collector demands proof of the crime. Bring your FTC report, your ID and any evidence of the fraudulent activity, and ask for a copy of the police report for your own records.

Notarization. Some creditors or agencies ask that affidavit forms be notarized before they act on them. Fees vary by state and by notary, so there is no fixed amount. Ask whether the creditor will accept a plain signature first, since not every company requires the extra step.

Timing affects these costs too. If the trigger was a lost or stolen card rather than stolen data, the first hours matter most; our timeline for a lost or stolen credit card lays out what to do and when.

None of these items is expensive alone. Together they stay modest, and the count of fraudulent accounts is what pushes the total up.

The Biggest Cost Is Time: Calls, Letters and Paperwork

The dollar costs stay small partly because the burden was shifted into labor. Here is the standard workload:

• Report the theft to the FTC, then save or print the recovery plan and Identity Theft Report it generates.
• Call the fraud department of every bank, credit union and card issuer involved, explain what happened and ask it to freeze or close the affected accounts.
• Reach out to every business that opened a fraudulent account, explain that the account came from identity theft, and request that it be closed or frozen.
• Place the fraud alert with one bureau and the credit freeze with all three.
• Ask ChexSystems for an alert if new bank accounts may have been opened in your name.
• Change the passwords on your email, online banking and any account holding personal or financial information, and turn on multi-factor authentication wherever it is offered.
• File a police report if creditors want proof of the crime.
• Keep monitoring statements, credit reports and accounts afterward, and set up transaction alerts where your institution offers them.

Each item is short. The total is not. Sorting everything out can take weeks, and consumer protection guidance is consistent on one point: save documentation from every exchange and keep following up until each matter is closed. Three factors push the hours up. More accounts mean more calls and more letters. A thief who used your information across several products, cards plus loans plus bank accounts, multiplies the number of companies you contact. And disorganized records slow everything down, because every call ends with a request for the same documents.

Lost Income: Time Off Work to Untangle the Damage

Some recovery work fits around a job. Letters, online reports and password changes do not care about business hours. But fraud departments, police stations and notaries generally operate while most people are at work, and hold times rarely respect a lunch break.

That mismatch is where lost income enters. An hourly worker who takes unpaid time to sit on hold, visit a police station or get a form notarized pays for identity theft twice, once in the problem and once in the wages. Salaried employees may absorb the hours differently, but the hours still come from somewhere: evenings, weekends or vacation days that would have gone to something else.

The size of this cost depends on a few things. The number of fraudulent accounts sets the number of calls. Each creditor’s process sets how long resolution takes. And your job sets the price of an hour. A person with one fraudulent card and a forgiving employer may lose little income. A person with several fraudulent accounts, a workplace that forbids personal calls and a police station open only on weekdays can lose real money.

This is also the argument for organizing paperwork early: every hour not spent hunting for a copy of your Identity Theft Report is an hour you did not have to take off work.

When Victims Do Lose Money Directly

Not every case costs money. In 2018, the FTC received over 1.4 million fraud reports, and in a quarter of them the person filing reported losing money. Reported losses for the year came to $1.48 billion, 38 percent higher than the 2017 total. These are reports consumers filed, not court findings that fraud occurred, so treat them as a picture of what people experienced rather than a verdict.

The shape of identity theft shifted in a way that affects recovery work. Tax-related identity theft reports fell 38 percent in 2018, while credit card fraud on new accounts rose 24 percent and became the most commonly reported form of identity theft that year. New-account fraud is the expensive kind in hours: one call to one issuer for a misused card, disputes with every company for accounts a thief opened.

Median reported losses, when a loss happened at all, varied widely across groups:

Group and fraud type	Median reported loss
All fraud, general population (2017)	$429
All fraud, military consumers (2017)	$619
All fraud, people in their 20s (2018)	$400
All fraud, people in their 70s (2018)	$751
Imposter scams, other consumers (2017)	$500
Imposter scams, military consumers (2017)	$699

A few patterns sit behind those numbers. Among people who reported fraud and gave their age, loss reports were more common among younger adults: 43 percent of those in their 20s said money was lost, against 15 percent of those in their 70s. The older group’s losses, though, ran larger when they happened, which is why the table pairs a $751 median for people in their 70s with $400 for people in their 20s. Military consumers filed a loss report less often than the general population, 15 percent versus 21 percent, yet their median losses ran higher.

A report without a loss still has value. Reports to the FTC go into a database shared with more than 2,300 law enforcement agencies, and that data shapes investigations. The FTC also publishes state and metro area breakdowns, including total and median reported losses, in a free public data tool.

How Acting Early Keeps the Total Cost Down

Speed is the biggest lever on the total bill. Moving fast limits the damage identity theft does and usually shortens how long recovery takes. Most early steps are free. One call for a fraud alert, one FTC report, a review of all three credit reports and a freeze if your Social Security number was exposed cover the foundation.

Speed matters most at the moment of loss. If a wallet or card goes missing, the first hours decide whether the incident stays small or turns into new-account fraud. Prevention is cheap too: do not leave mail with sensitive information in your mailbox overnight, and review your credit reports on a schedule instead of waiting for a problem to find you.

Paid help exists. Credit monitoring and professional recovery services are widely marketed and offer a variety of features, and some victims with complicated cases find them useful. Before paying for anything, weigh the price against how much of the core work is already free, and check whether the service does something you cannot do yourself. If you would rather speak to a person first, the FTC’s identity theft helpline is 1-877-438-4338.

If you suspect identity theft, start now: place a fraud alert with one credit bureau, pull your free reports from all three and file the FTC report that generates your recovery plan.

Questions and answers

Is a credit freeze free?

A freeze is placed directly with each of the three credit bureaus, and you must contact all three individually. Whether any fee applies depends on your state’s rules, so confirm the cost with each bureau when you place or lift a freeze.

Do I have to file a police report?

Filing a report with local police is not always required, but it may help if creditors or debt collectors demand proof of the crime. Bring your FTC Identity Theft Report, a government-issued ID and any proof of the fraudulent activity, and keep a copy for your records.

Will identity theft cost me money?

Not always. In 2018, a quarter of the fraud reports filed with the FTC included a reported loss, so many cases cost only time and small out-of-pocket expenses.

Should I pay for an identity theft protection service?

Paid monitoring and recovery services exist and offer a variety of features, but this site does not recommend specific products. Weigh any price against how much of the core recovery work is already free.