Protect Your Identity and Credit

San Xavier del Bac Mission

Photo not by me

From Ragin72 on Reddit:

While credit monitoring is good to help alert you and hopefully minimize the extent of damages in some cases, you don't want it to give you a false sense of security. It can't be relied on solely for protection. Finding out after the damage is done and "hoping" some c.r. sitting in their pajamas will clean up a myriad of financial issues is wishful thinking. As a practical matter, they can only "help" out, with no guarantees. Hopefully, it's more than notifying the credit bureaus you're a victim of fraud, which you can do yourself.

Unless you're actively applying for loans, it's better to be proactive and freeze your credit file(s). Keep the logins handy (but secure) for each service in case you need to unfreeze your credit file(s) temporarily. Find out which credit reporting agency your creditor uses for a loan you're applying for and only unfreeze that credit bureau temporarily (1 day, 7 days, etc). Do this from now. Don't stop after you pick a credit monitoring service.

DON'T LOSE THE LOGINS.

https://www.equifax.com/personal/credit-report-services/credit-freeze/

https://www.transunion.com/credit-freeze

https://www.experian.com/freeze/center.html

A couple of obvious security tips:

While you're at it, have your credit card issuer(s) open a second, smaller balance card you can use for those small dollar, higher-risk purchases like online shopping, fast food, gas, convenience stores, etc. Especially while you're traveling (Gangs embed their members as store employees to steal credit card, and checking info). Yes, the Fair Credit Billing Act limits the liability to $50 (some banks it's even $0), but now your 5K-10K limit credit card is not usable until your replacement arrives. Also, watch your credit utilization for those accounts so as not to negatively impact your FICO score. Goes for all accounts, but small ones are easier to over-utilize. Pay them in full each month.

BTW2: Don't write checks. You're giving someone everything they need to drain your account. But that's not the worst part. They can easily make paper duplicates and start kiting checks at multiple stores and eventually, an arrest warrant will be issued. Not for them. For you! If you ever have a check stolen, notify the bank and file a police report immediately (in each jurisdiction a check was written in). Keep it/them ON you for the foreseeable future. A simple traffic stop can turn into a nightmare, with you in jail.