fontman
05-26-06, 08:09 AM
By John Walthall
I'm not sure if everyone has ever seen this before or not, but it is good advice, especially in this circumstance. You can call the three major credit reporting agencies (Experian, TransUnion and Equifax) and place a ?Fraud Alert? on your credit report. This basically tells the agencies that your SSN has the possibility of being used by someone other than yourself, which means that if they are requested to provide a credit report for any reason (new credit card, car loan, cell phone contract, etc) their response to the requesting source includes a disclaimer that your file has been flagged as a potentially fraudulent transaction, which means the requesting source is supposed to completely verify your personal information with the credit bureau before assigning you credit (DOB, current address, mother?s maiden name, etc). It also removes your name from their listing they sell for pre-approved credit and insurance for two years. The drawback, of course, is that you don?t get instant gratification for a new credit account (the credit agency will call you at your home or business phone on record with the credit bureaus to confirm the request for a new account), which means if you want that new big-screen at Best Buy with no money down and 12 months of 0% interest, you?re going to have to wait for a day or two. The numbers and addresses for the agencies are:
TransUnion
Fraud Victim Assistance Department
Phone: 800-680-7289
Fax:714-447-6034
P.O. Box 6790
Fullerton, CA 92634-6790
Equifax
Consumer Fraud Division
Phone: 800-525-6285 or: 404-885-8000
Fax:770-375-2821
P.O. Box 740241
Atlanta,GA30374-0241
Experian
Experian's National Consumer Assistance
Phone:888-397-3742
P.O. Box 2104
Allen,TX75013
You can also ?opt-out? of the pre-approval offers by calling the number1-888-567-8688which will allow you to opt out of offers for either two years or permanently. This does not put a Fraud alert on your credit report On a final note, a small silver lining for this whole thing could be legislation introduced by Sens. John Kerry and Ken Salazar requiring that veterans affected by the ?loss? of the data be given free credit monitoring for one year, followed by a second free credit report (in addition to the one provided by the Fair Credit Reporting Act) for the second and third years of the legislation (meaning Vets can check their reports twice a year for free instead of having to pay upwards of $150 for the service). Hope this helps.
I'm not sure if everyone has ever seen this before or not, but it is good advice, especially in this circumstance. You can call the three major credit reporting agencies (Experian, TransUnion and Equifax) and place a ?Fraud Alert? on your credit report. This basically tells the agencies that your SSN has the possibility of being used by someone other than yourself, which means that if they are requested to provide a credit report for any reason (new credit card, car loan, cell phone contract, etc) their response to the requesting source includes a disclaimer that your file has been flagged as a potentially fraudulent transaction, which means the requesting source is supposed to completely verify your personal information with the credit bureau before assigning you credit (DOB, current address, mother?s maiden name, etc). It also removes your name from their listing they sell for pre-approved credit and insurance for two years. The drawback, of course, is that you don?t get instant gratification for a new credit account (the credit agency will call you at your home or business phone on record with the credit bureaus to confirm the request for a new account), which means if you want that new big-screen at Best Buy with no money down and 12 months of 0% interest, you?re going to have to wait for a day or two. The numbers and addresses for the agencies are:
TransUnion
Fraud Victim Assistance Department
Phone: 800-680-7289
Fax:714-447-6034
P.O. Box 6790
Fullerton, CA 92634-6790
Equifax
Consumer Fraud Division
Phone: 800-525-6285 or: 404-885-8000
Fax:770-375-2821
P.O. Box 740241
Atlanta,GA30374-0241
Experian
Experian's National Consumer Assistance
Phone:888-397-3742
P.O. Box 2104
Allen,TX75013
You can also ?opt-out? of the pre-approval offers by calling the number1-888-567-8688which will allow you to opt out of offers for either two years or permanently. This does not put a Fraud alert on your credit report On a final note, a small silver lining for this whole thing could be legislation introduced by Sens. John Kerry and Ken Salazar requiring that veterans affected by the ?loss? of the data be given free credit monitoring for one year, followed by a second free credit report (in addition to the one provided by the Fair Credit Reporting Act) for the second and third years of the legislation (meaning Vets can check their reports twice a year for free instead of having to pay upwards of $150 for the service). Hope this helps.