Review your credit regularly. You will hate the results if you get nailed for identity theft
We are planning something real cool here, but until then here is my suggestion. Review 1 credit bureau every three months. Use the free service. Calender these 3 events. Don’t miss them. I have tried to help too many people undo the results of identity theft. There are timing laws, it is complicated, it is grueling.
Here is the link for your free credit report, mandated by congress.
VERY IMPORTANT! CAN I SHOUT IT LOUD ENOUGH! VERY IMPORTANT! My honey’s SS# was stolen & new cards opened using our current address as their former. We noticed the accounts on our credit report at refinancing but they had small balances and with 15 pages of credit history, they seemed insignificant. We never followed up to see if they were ours. A few months later the collection calls came. Nasty, nasty, NASTY people. The company (BIG company) refused to acknowledge receipt of our notarized signatures even when we had return receipt signed for certified letters. Finally my honey got a manager on line and made him stand by the fax. We got a response letter saying account # (last 4 digits only) was indeed a fraud and we would no longer be harassed. Info was still on credit report. A year later I got a call from BIG company’s attorney threatening a judgment! They were in violation of federal statute xxx.xxx.xxx. We got an attorney to finally get the whole thing expunged from our credit report. Three years later, the accounts were gone but not the address. I WILL NEVER DO BUSINESS WITH THIS COMPANY. NEVER. NEVER. NEVER.
It was not their fault the accounts were opened but it was their fault that we were harrassed and that they were incompetent in dealing with our report of the accounts as fraud. They cleared only one of the two accounts in response to our letter. AND they tried to get us to agree to their “charging it off”. Maybe you can explain the difference between “charge off” and “gone” from your credit report. Both husband and I had worked many years in banking and knew the difference. The common person on the street wouldn’t have a clue. They were awful!
I get calls from their company offering cards all the time. Each time I repeat very clearly why I will NEVER do business with them. Incompetence, laziness, lack of controls, outright lying and breaking federal statutes which forbid them from contacting us beyond 30 days after our first letter reporting the fraud. They didn’t care. Also, they would not go after the perpetrator when we gave them the real names and address. We couldn’t file charges because we weren’t the victim!
Check your credit report and make sure it’s free of identity theft and mistakes. No one else is going to protect you better than you!
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