We see people from all walks of life who enroll in our services. It really is a broad spectrum of people from victims of ID theft, to a young adult who is curious about what there credits core may be. We also get people looking to improve their scores, or people who want to protect themselves from ID theft. Then there are people who are preparing to make a large purchase such as a home.
Victims of ID theft often are advised to enroll in our service so they can monitor their reports for a year or so to make sure that no new activity appears, and if it does they can take care of it immediately. Often times if your a victim of a ID crime the company who your data was stolen from will provide you with a limited monitoring program, but in some cases they wont, or you just want a more inclusive service.
We also have a fair amount of students who have no credit at all, and are wanting to start to build up a thick credit file. They will often enroll in the service as its a first step on the long road ahead of them. I used to think this was a bit of overkill as the chances of you having your identity stolen was low because you did not have credit cards, or other easily stolen financial information. That has changed over the years as your social security number is now used so commonly that any of the databases that store this information could have been compromised. In addition this demographic is big video game players, and to be honest so am I. And many of the online games are monthly subscriptions, and they require a debit or credit card to play. These databases are becoming common targets for hackers, and for this reason I now recommend it as a good practice to sing up for our service.
Then you have those people who are planning to make that large purchase. They want to know exactly what their credit looks like and exactly what they will need to do in order to get the best rate possible. By monitoring your score, can know when you get to the score that you want, and at that time you can start to shop around for the best rate, and make that purchase!
The same goes for people who want to improve their scores. You can use the tool provided with the service to know which factors are have the most effect on your score in a positive and negative manor. With this information it makes it that much easier to fix the large problems first, the ones that will have the most effect on your scores, and then start to take care of the smaller items.
I have been in this business for over ten years now, and I have never been able to see a clear pattern to the types of customers we get. Like I said we get people from all walks of life, and from every economic group.
ShareThe FACT act is short for the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions act. Its a mouthful, I know, but what does it mean, and why should you care about it? Good questions, and honestly its important and I wish more people knew about it and more importantly used it! In a nutshell the FACT act is the legislation that enables all US citizens free access to there credit reports once per year. It also put in some provisions to help prevent identity theft.
This legislation was passed in 2003, and still only a handful of people know about it and take advantage of it. There are a few very important sections of the FACT act here are the highlights. First is the creation of Annualcreditreport.com this is the site that was created to allow access to all three of your credit reports once per year. Consumers can log in and see their reports from Tansunion, Experian, and Equifax, what you do not get is your score. This is very helpful for those consumers who do not wish to sign up for a credit monitoring service or wish to monitor their credit using free tools available to them. Everyone should take advantage of this program!
The next important section of the bill is limiting printing of up to 5 digits of any customers card numbers on any point of sale purchases. Before this it was common to print out your entire card number along with the expiration date, which made it extremely easy to have unauthorized use of your cards. This one provision has cut down small transaction theft considerably. It is very comforting to know that we do not have hundreds if not thousands of receipts floating around with our complete card numbers on them!
The FACT act also made it possible that consumers can place fraud alerts, or military personal can place active duty alerts on there credit reports. What this does is that if you think you have been a victim of identity theft, or you are active duty being deployed overseas, you can request to have a fraud alert placed on your reports. These fraud alerts remain in place for 90 days, but you can request to extend them. What this does is make it much tougher for your identity to be stolen or used. If someone tries to open an account with your information the lender will see the alert and is required to make contact with you to verify that you are truly trying to apply for credit. If you are a current member of our credit monitoring service you can do this from within your account. If you are not a member, than you can do this by writing a letter to the credit bureaus explaining why you are the victim of identity theft, or you are active duty military and that you wish to have a fraud alert placed in your reports.
These are some of what I feel to be the most important parts of the FACT act for consumers. There are many more parts that are equally important, but we just do not have the space to cover in a short blog post. For a complete look go here. The FACT act is a very important piece of legislation that all consumers should be aware of, and take advantage of.
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According to this story over at Gizmodo hackers have been targeting Subway brand point of sale machines. There is a slight chance that if you have used your credit card at a Subway restaurant that you may have had your card number stolen. The hackers have managed to put 150 Subway locations at risk. They have gathered 80,000 people card information and managed to rack up over $3 million in fake charges!
This happened because these stores were not updating their point of sale machines according to the franchise suggested upgrade schedule. As a result the hackers were able to install code in the point of sale machines that logged the card information and then sent it to a FTP server. The thieves were blatant enough to print out there own credit cards with false names on them!
What is so scary about this kind of attack is that it is virtually undetectable by you or me. We are so used to paying with our cards that we never think our data could be stolen so easily. Keep in mind that this is extremely rare! So while it may be better to use cash in these small amounts, I would not really worry to much if I had to use my card.
In this case it does not appear these thieves were after you ID, and they did not seem to be trying to open new accounts in your name, so even being signed up with our credit monitoring service would not be able to protect you! So what can you do? Well not much unfortunately, you just have to make sure to keep an eye on your statements every month and look for unauthorized charges that you do not recognize.
What should you do if you find an unauthorized charge? You should contact the bank as soon as possible. In addition to calling you will want to write a letter documenting all the charges that you do not agree with. The bank or card issuer will then open an investigation to the charges, and will look at certain factors such as:
They will often request a written statement from you, and depending on the dollar amount they may ask you for a police statement. Card companies are very good at detecting fraud, and they will do everything they can to make the situation as easy as possible!
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We spend much of our time on this blog discussing ways that our credit report monitoring program can help protect your online identity. Our service is a great way to do that, but we need to also make sure that what we are doing offline is also working to keep our ID’s safe. Offline ID theft is a very common problem, and while it does no pose as large as a threat as your data being stolen online, it is still a risk, and one that can easily be reduced. The reason why online occurrences are more common is just the nature of the way data is stored. Most databases online store all your personal information in one place, its a one stop shop for a ID thieve. Offline it is a bit more work for a potential thief to put together all the pieces in order to steal your identity.
We went over a few tips early this week, (read the post here) but I want to dig in a bit deeper and provide some tips for securing your offline life.
1. Do not carry around an excessive amount of credit cards in your wallet. First it would be easy to lose one and not notice. Second if your wallet does get stolen (read here on how to handle that) having a ton of credit cards is going to slow down your process of getting them canceled and changed.
2. Do not carry your social security card in your wallet unless you need it for a particular reason. I know many of us have been in the habit of carrying our SSN cards around, but really it is so much safer to just keep it at home locked up than in our wallets.
3. Consider installing a locking mailbox. Your mail is a very easy place for a thief to get a hold of a treasure trove of personal information. Another great way to keep your mail safe is to use a PO box.
4. Shred anything with personal information on it, bank statements, credit card statements, cell phone bills, doctors or insurance bills, anything that has your personal information on it! The trash is one of the most common spots to have your identity stolen. If you have cats, you can toss the shredded documents in with your cat litter, and I can almost grantee nobody will be going through your shredded papers!
5. When using an ATM be careful to make sure nobody is near by and watching for your pin numbers. Also use a pin number that is just a random assortment of numbers. Thieves are very good at guessing or finding out pin numbers that our closely related to you, such as your birthday or anniversary.
With a few simple tips you should be able to eliminate the most common ways that your ID can be stolen offline.
ShareThere are just times in our lives when we just can not afford to sign up for a credit monitoring service, we understand this very well. So what can you do to keep your identity safe?
The first thing I would recommend doing is head over to Annual Credit Report.com and order a copay of your credit reports. You can order your credit reports for free once every 12 months from this site. Annual Credit Report.com was made possible by the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act, which made it possible for consumers to get a credit report from all three bureaus once per year.
Once you have all three credit reports, take a good look at them and find anything that is inaccurate or suspicious. For inaccurate information write a letter to each of the three credit bureaus and explain to them that the information provided on your credit report in wrong and you would like to have it removed. They are obligated by law to research the items in question and have them removed.
If you find something that looks suspicious you will want to contact the company that is reporting the suspicious activity. For example there may be a credit card account that you have no record of. You will want to contact the card provider, and find out when it was opened, and by who. If it was not you, you will want to have it removed and ask them to provide you a letter saying the account is closed, and that you were not the one who opened it. Once you get the letter from the card issuers you will once again want to contact all three bureaus and have this account completely wiped from your credit history.
Next thing you will want to do is to make sure you are very diligent about destroying any pieces of paper that contain your personal data such as your social security number, address, and home phone number! These pieces of information could be used to open account up in your name.
You will also want to protect your online identity. Make sure to change your passwords at least once per month. Make sure to use a strong password, one that contains both upper and lower case letters, and one that uses numbers.
In addition to your free credit reports from Annual Credit Report.com I highly recommend you purchase your credit reports at least once per quarter, that way you can have a much better chance of spotting identity theft, and taking the steps any thefts before they become a huge mess and consume much of your precious time and resources fighting.
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Here at Best Credit Reports.com we wan to make sure that you the customer is as up to date on any news that may effect you or your credit reports. That is what our blog is for, to bring you timely news and tips to help you learn how to maintain your credit, or how to protect yourself from ID theft.
We have added a new section of articles. We want you to have access to this area so you can learn everything you wanted to know and more about credit reports, credit monitoring, and credit scores. We will be constantly adding to this library, and hope that it will be a one stop research section for all of our customers.
Have a look around it here!
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Around the 4th of July with all the fireworks and loud noises its a time when pets run away from home. Here at BestCreditReports.com we are an animal friendly business and we let our employees bring animals to work with them. We know just how important our pets our to us, and to all of you out there. July see’s a very large spike in the amount of homeless pets. We want to do our part to help reunite these pets with their families, and to find homes for all the other stray dogs and cats out in shelters.
For the entire month of July, we will be donating to No More Homeless Pets. For every new customer that signs up for our credit monitoring service we will be donating a portion to “No More Homeless Pets”.
We hope everyone and their pets has a great July!
ShareIf you are one of many that believe that credit monitoring is an unnecessary payment every month, then you are allowing yourself to become a high risk for identity fraud. As much as we all like all the new advances that computer technology and the computer age has brought about, as in all things, such developments have allowed for fraudulent individuals to take advantage by stealing identities.
If you are reluctant to give out your credit card details over the phone or on line, or even your full name and address, then the sad thing is that you really may not be being over cautious. It really is easy for individuals with know how in specific areas to steal one s identity, and if it is done carefully, you may not notice until the alarm bells are raised by the creditors who try to reclaim the debts you didn’t know you had.
The most clever of fraudsters will only make small purchases with your identity, and spaced over periods of time; using this method, we find that on average, we can be 5000 pounds in debt before the alarm bells are raised, and of course, depending on how long since the purchases were made, you may be liable to repay a certain percentage yourself.
The best thing you can do here is to protect yourself; prevention is always the best step, and by using credit monitoring services, you will be constantly updated as to your credit status, and will be able to be vigilant and watch out for identity fraud. By using a credit monitoring service, you will be alerted to all changes in your credit score, and from these alerts, you can ascertain if you have been the victim of fraud or if they are simply purchases that you have made yourself.
Being vigilant about your credit score is really a very worthwhile task, as once you obtain a bad credit rating, the process for clearing your debts and getting back good credit is anything but fast. Therefore by spending a little each month on credit monitoring services, you will have peace of mind and reassurance that your identity always remains your own.
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In the twenty first century, we are experiencing technical advances in all ways; some very wanted and needed; others undesirable and harmful. One very harmful advance in today’s society is the theft of ID and credit fraud. It is so easy for someone who knows how to steal your ID and use your name and details to purchase items with credit.
We give out our personal details over the Internet or even over the phone all too easily these days, and we often purchase items from sites that may not be secure. What we do not realise is that when we give our details over the Internet they can then be accessed by many computer experts, some who specialise in credit fraud and the theft of IDs.
When asking for credit on line, you are often asked for few personal details, especially in the case of quick loans, and it is therefore very easy for someone to use your details in order to gain credit. You will stay blissfully unaware that your identity has indeed been stolen, and this can go on for some time until you realise, perhaps when you go to buy with credit and are denied.
If you are denied credit, then this can be a big shock, one that is followed by the even bigger shock that you receive when you ask for a credit statement. If you have been the victim of Identity fraud, then you will see fluctuations in your credit score when you yourself have not made any purchases at all. This is where the service of credit monitoring really can be invaluable.
If you pay out a little every month to a reputable credit monitoring agency, then you will be informed of any changes to your credit score; this in turn will allow you to cancel transactions that have been made illegally by other people, and in turn save you a lot of money. Far too many people wait until they have actually been victim of credit fraud before paying out for a credit monitoring service, but if you have a high credit score, then it really is an invaluable tool that will give you great peace of mind.
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There are many times in our lives when we wish to find out what our credit score is, whether it is when we are thinking of applying for a mortgage or a bank loan, or perhaps when we first leave college and wish to enter the work force. Your credit score is not only a serious issue when applying for loans and credit facilities but also when you are looking for employment. Your credit score rating is available both to yourselves and to any one else who wishes to find it out, and often without any charge at all.
Other instances where a good or bad credit rating may sway an important decision is in the adoption process for a child; so you are beginning to see just how important this figure really is. Finding out your credit score really couldn’t be simpler; you can find it out today, on line.
There are many on line credit score calculators, all you need to do is make sure that you use a reputable one and not one that is a scam. If you use our service you will have unlimited access to your Transunion Vantage credit score.
There are three main credit rating companies in existence; Trans Union, Experian and Equifax. If you use an on line service that is accredited by one of these three companies, then you are sure to gain an accurate reading of your credit rating.
If you wish to be sent your entire credit report with your credit score, then it is normal that you will be charged a minimal fee for this service; for free you will just be given your basic credit rating. It is a good idea to keep track of your credit score and ratings so as to avoid becoming victim of identity fraud. Identity fraud is big business in today’s high tech society, and by using a credit monitoring service you can be sure of your peace of mind.
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