Credit Protection Companies

[David_w]

I just realized someone had opened a credit card in my name and missed 2 payments. I am wondering who ya'll use as credit monitoring service that will notify you when new accounts are opened, payments are missed and other protections. I have a free service through AAA who I believe goes through Experian but I guess they were slow to notify

[jebmke]

I don't monitor but I have locked my credit with the credit agencies. If your credit is locked, I'm not sure you need a monitoring service.

[David_w]

I don't monitor but I have locked my credit with the credit agencies. If your credit is locked, I'm not sure you need a monitoring service.

In my business I have had someone who opened a credit card in my business name and when I called the company they never did a credit check or any sort of check they said.

[Freefun]

I’m not aware of anything credit protection companies can provide that’s not available for free. I use free services from Chase and Capital One. They monitor my credit and if there are any changes or inquiries , I get an email almost immediately.

[turtlebug]

Freeze your credit with all credit reporting agencies and you'll avoid this happening again in your name. Unfortunately, businesses credit cannot be frozen like consumer credit. In that case, you can monitor your business credit report thru Experian.

[tev9876]

I applied for a new Barclays card last month online. Within seconds of hitting Submit on the application, my phone beeped with an alert from Amex that there was a change in my credit report and a new inquiry had posted. Chase emailed me the same notification at the exact same time. Within 24 hours I also had email alerts from Credit Karma and Discover - probably others I didn't pay attention to. I also received alerts a few weeks later when the new account appeared on my credit report.

I don't pay for any of these services - you just have to opt in through your credit card accounts, or sign up for free at Credit Karma. They can get annoying though. Some like to send scary emails with subjects like "There has been a change to your credit report". Often these end up being "Congratulations - you paid your Amex/Chase/Discover bill". Obviously a tactic to get you to open the email and hopefully buy their advanced (for $$$) services.

[David_w]

Thanks all. I put a freeze with all 3 credit reporting agencies and signed up for a few more free services (Chase, Credit Karma, Amex). Now I just have to work on getting this fraudulent account taken care of. I filed a dispute with Experian but also contacted the company directly. They said to file and send them a police report and an FTC report and then they will check into it. I appreciate all the suggestions.

[hachiko]

Thanks all. I put a freeze with all 3 credit reporting agencies and signed up for a few more free services (Chase, Credit Karma, Amex). Now I just have to work on getting this fraudulent account taken care of. I filed a dispute with Experian but also contacted the company directly. They said to file and send them a police report and an FTC report and then they will check into it. I appreciate all the suggestions.

There are many different venues for relief that may be available to you, where you may be able to get professional assistance for free. Many offer reimbursement for oop expenses (and sometimes even time spent) for identity theft.

Check your
Homeowners insurance (be careful about this, I'd probably keep this as a last resort)
Credit cards
Bank accounts
Employee benefits
Prepaid legal plans (part of employee benefits generally)
I'm sure others have other recommendations of places to check. Some you may have had to sign up for before the incident, but some may be automatically registered.

It generally takes somewhere between 15 and 60 days for new accounts to show up, so if a creditor does a soft pull or doesn't pull your credit at all, you may not know about it until 60+ days after the account is opened, putting you in a chasing position, probably after the criminal has done everything they wanted to do. That's why freezing your report - freezing is not the same as locking, locking is fine, I keep mine locked, but it's not the same as freezing it (and in this case potentially adding an identity theft flag) is the best way to ensure new accounts aren't opened. But it's not foolproof.

[SmileyFace]

Thanks all. I put a freeze with all 3 credit reporting agencies and signed up for a few more free services (Chase, Credit Karma, Amex). Now I just have to work on getting this fraudulent account taken care of. I filed a dispute with Experian but also contacted the company directly. They said to file and send them a police report and an FTC report and then they will check into it. I appreciate all the suggestions.

Keep checking to make sure there aren't any other open accounts that slipped in before your freezes. If they opened one account they may have started opening others.
Someone (or mutliple someones) is running around with my details attempting to open accounts at various banks - since my credit is frozen I just keep receiving denial letters. In my case - when I call each bank they seem like there is no need to report it or look into it (they say because it happens so frequently). One of the denial letters actual said "if you didn't attempt to open this account there is no reason to contact us"

[David_w]

Thanks all. I put a freeze with all 3 credit reporting agencies and signed up for a few more free services (Chase, Credit Karma, Amex). Now I just have to work on getting this fraudulent account taken care of. I filed a dispute with Experian but also contacted the company directly. They said to file and send them a police report and an FTC report and then they will check into it. I appreciate all the suggestions.

There are many different venues for relief that may be available to you, where you may be able to get professional assistance for free. Many offer reimbursement for oop expenses (and sometimes even time spent) for identity theft.

Check your
Homeowners insurance (be careful about this, I'd probably keep this as a last resort)
Credit cards
Bank accounts
Employee benefits
Prepaid legal plans (part of employee benefits generally)
I'm sure others have other recommendations of places to check. Some you may have had to sign up for before the incident, but some may be automatically registered.

It generally takes somewhere between 15 and 60 days for new accounts to show up, so if a creditor does a soft pull or doesn't pull your credit at all, you may not know about it until 60+ days after the account is opened, putting you in a chasing position, probably after the criminal has done everything they wanted to do. That's why freezing your report - freezing is not the same as locking, locking is fine, I keep mine locked, but it's not the same as freezing it (and in this case potentially adding an identity theft flag) is the best way to ensure new accounts aren't opened. But it's not foolproof.

Thanks. I'm not actually out any money. I just have to get this cleared up and credit score back to where it was. I looked into locking but I believe it is a paid service with each bureau separately. Then I would have to do times 3 for me, my wife and my son.