PSA: Protect Your Credit from being compromised

[MintJulie]

I was reading the Detroit Free Press tonight and discovered that Wendy's has had a credit card breach.    link You don't really need to read the article.   

I thought I'd share a trick my sister told me about that will help you protect your credit.    It's completely free.    My sister learned the hard way about this about 10 years ago when her purse was stolen and her identity was stolen.   The thief opened 10 credit cards in her name.  Before she knew it $90,000 in charges were racked up on them.   It was a complete mess.    She did learn how to protect herself from it happening again.   It's easy and a trick that LifeLock used to use before they were banned from doing it because it was jamming up the credit bureaus systems.

Requesting a 90 Day Fraud Alert is very easy to do and it takes 5 minutes by filling out a couple pages of info about yourself on one of the 3 credit bureaus websites.    What this does is prevents credit cards, mortgages, etc from being opened in your name without your knowledge.

If you ever do want to open credit for yourself after this alert is placed, there will be a phone call to you that confirms you applied for it and also that you are who you say you are.

I do it through Equifax, and they in turn notify the other two credit bureaus (Experian and Transunion).   You'll also get a free credit report (pdf link in final page) that shows all open and closed credit cards, car loans, mortgages and bank accounts in your name.   

Here is the link      https://www.alerts.equifax.com/AutoFraud_Online/jsp/fraudAlert.jsp

You can only place a 90 day fraud protection.   I just set a reminder on my calendar and place another fraud alert on my file every 90 days.   

Just thought I'd share.

[ChirpingGirl]

I was reading the Detroit Free Press tonight and discovered that Wendy's has had a credit card breach.    link You don't really need to read the article.   

I thought I'd share a trick my sister told me about that will help you protect your credit.    It's completely free.    My sister learned the hard way about this about 10 years ago when her purse was stolen and her identity was stolen.   The thief opened 10 credit cards in her name.  Before she knew it $90,000 in charges were racked up on them.   It was a complete mess.    She did learn how to protect herself from it happening again.   It's easy and a trick that LifeLock used to use before they were banned from doing it because it was jamming up the credit bureaus systems.

Requesting a 90 Day Fraud Alert is very easy to do and it takes 5 minutes by filling out a couple pages of info about yourself on one of the 3 credit bureaus websites.    What this does is prevents credit cards, mortgages, etc from being opened in your name without your knowledge.

If you ever do want to open credit for yourself after this alert is placed, there will be a phone call to you that confirms you applied for it and also that you are who you say you are.

I do it through Equifax, and they in turn notify the other two credit bureaus (Experian and Transunion).   You'll also get a free credit report (pdf link in final page) that shows all open and closed credit cards, car loans, mortgages and bank accounts in your name.   

Here is the link      https://www.alerts.equifax.com/AutoFraud_Online/jsp/fraudAlert.jsp

You can only place a 90 day fraud protection.   I just set a reminder on my calendar and place another fraud alert on my file every 90 days.   

Just thought I'd share.

Thankfully I am now permanently banned from Wendy's.

[TXScribe]

You can also put a full permanent lock on your credit for a small fee, or free if you are a documented identity theft victim.  Only down side is that if you are going to make a major purchase involving credit you have to proactively open it up, conduct you business, and then lock it back down.  Many people loose track of the 90 day loop eventually.  Basically the same process, the major credit bureaus sites will walk you through it.

[MintJulie]

I was unaware of the paid service.  Thank you for bringing this up TX.   

Yes, Equifax offers 'Automatic Fraud Alerts' for $7.95 month.     That works out to two good bottles of bourbon a year.          Most phone calendars can set up alerts to text you when your 90 days are up.