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Credit scare.

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    • Credit scare.

      One has to wonder how bad it is out there with all the scams. The breaches at corporations, the Home Depot comes to mind and the rest. My wife and I pulled Exsperion this year and found a loan from some obscure corporation in Utah that I never heard of from three years ago, and the loan was connected to some halfway house in Texas. I don't think it went through, but they won't close it or remove it. They won't admit to anything! So now we are filing a police report and the officer said... "yup I have been through this three times"... oh do tell... what an interesting conversation.
      Be wise enough to walk away from the nonsense around you! :thumbup:
    • We have our credit cards set up so we receive an e-mail when they are used.
      Woke up one morning to find one of them had been used to the tune of almost $4000 dollars at a Home Depot in the Bronx, a part of New York City. It turns out a number of large, home appliances had been orders. We immediately called the credit card company and reported it. The stopped the order and in the end we didn't have to pay anything. I just wish I had called the Home Depot first to find out what address the appliances were supposed to be delivered to X(
    • We were sitting in a movie theater and the show was about to start. My phone vibrated....I glanced at it and the number was out of San Antonio. It quit. then....it went off with a text message, also from SA. Then it vibrated again. I got up and left to listen to the message. Our card is thru USAA...it was them....about 5 minutes before they called, someone in like Turkey, or Madrid Spain (never asked which) changed 4 round trip, First Class tickets on "Air Turkey"....and also some $800 bill in a hotel in Madrid. Thank Goodness, USAA flagged that as "BS" about 4 minutes after it started. By the time I called them, they were reversing the charges. I approved "close the account". The only thing they messed up, was they didn't send out the replacement card (said they would, a week later, no card...I called....'Whoops...sorry...we will overnight it").

      With the big Experian hack, we put a credit freeze on at all four major credit reporting companies. If we need a loan, we will use USAA or our credit union....which as we were "already customers", they can pull a report without us lifting the freeze. So far, it only bit us once on the freeze. Wife went to set up her Social Security stuff online (she'd never done that) and it won't go thru due to the freeze. She just needs to shop up in person to set that up. Oh, and some store credit card she applied for "would you like to save $ today by opening a card?" that failed, due to the freeze.
      Pirating – Corporate Takeover without the paperwork
    • rhjanes wrote:

      Wife went to set up her Social Security stuff online (she'd never done that) and it won't go thru due to the freeze. She just needs to shop up in person to set that up.
      you can also call customer service, find out what credit bureau they use, thaw your credit, and resubmit. that's what i did, costs $5 in georgia (every state is different) which to me was better than going to social security.

      i'm going to shop my car/home/umbrella coverage and will need to thaw my credit to do so.
      2,000 miler
    • RH Janes, you said big 4 credit bureaus? I know Experian, Transuniom, and Equifax, is there another that had become one of the big players?

      Also, how did you setup a credit freeze? Did it cost money or are they required to provide that for free?
      Dogs are excellent judges of character, this fact goes a long way toward explaining why some people don't like being around them.
    • SarcasmTheElf wrote:

      RH Janes, you said big 4 credit bureaus? I know Experian, Transuniom, and Equifax, is there another that had become one of the big players?

      Also, how did you setup a credit freeze? Did it cost money or are they required to provide that for free?
      the 4th is innovis; it's possible to freeze your info with them although most people don't. they are not mentioned in the FTC credit freeze FAQ; last i heard clark howard says freezing the big 3 is enough.

      you freeze your credit by contacting each bureau individually online. the cost varies by state -- from free to a maximum of $10. that fee is charged by each bureau per person. so in georgia it costs $15 for a person to freeze each of the big 3; or $30 for a couple. if you have been the victim of identity theft it is free. police report needed.

      you can temporarily unfreeze your credit if needed. this can be done for one bureau or all of them. in georgia the same $5 fee applies; i don't know if this varies by state.

      it's my understanding if you ever lose the pin number needed to unfreeze your credit you have a mountain of paperwork to submit via the mail to prove your identity. i keep my pin numbers in my bank safe deposit box.
      2,000 miler
    • Everything Max said......I did all four, for myself and wife. We have the PINS. The web sites to do them, vary in "easy". Most are quite easy. One, doesn't let you pick the PIN. I believe the others do. Think about that ahead of time. Like one, the PIN is like 6 digits and another it is 10. I used the same 6 digits, adding 4 more, for the one requiring the 10 digits.

      I gave up on a bank safety box some years ago. They jacked up the cost all the freaking time! I bought a safe which is also fire proof for like 1200 degrees for 1 hour. Our wills, trusts forms, PINS are all in that.

      If you need to apply for credit and it is NOT thru one of your existing banks (call ahead to make sure this is true at your financial institution), then you need to call the company you are applying for the credit ahead of time. Find out which report company they use....then unfreeze just that one. Apply for credit, tell them you need to know once they pull the data as you need to apply the freeze again. So say you want to use Bank-A for a new line of credit (Bank-A is not a bank you currently use)...call Bank-a, find out "we use Experian".....PIN unlock Experian, apply for credit with Bank-A...when they have the report, get back on Experian and use the PIN and lock it again.
      Pirating – Corporate Takeover without the paperwork
    • I monitor daily also (two bank accounts....recording the Debit card activity and checking that there is nothing on the credit card). However, as happened to us, it can be 5 minutes and "they" have charged up $5000 on you! You can HOPE your bank slams that door (ours did).

      The prior mess was actually check fraud. Someone forged a check from about 10 years prior! (how did they get that image) and bought like $500 worth of ToysRUs stuff.....in Minnesota. (last time I was there, was 40+ years ago). I noticed it on my nightly checking, BUT, it was still a call to the credit union in the morning, then go in to close the account, get a new one, get new checks.....total PIA.....

      Since we no longer need any new "credit", and with the Experian disaster, we just paid the $45 and put a freeze on for both of us, at all 4 credit reporting companies. Someone can still forge, commit fraud...but we want to make it hard for them (no opening cards in our names! Which you then get the bill a month later....)
      Pirating – Corporate Takeover without the paperwork
    • Wise Old Owl wrote:

      Huge thank you! Fraud it is clearly rampant. I have been so careful and that does not matter anymore.
      Sadly true....
      On our check fraud....We have a credit union. they used to be in downtown Dallas and worked with all the oil companies....which I did. That downtown office actually closed and moved about 5 miles north, like 15 years back. They also changed their name! (but the current name is sort of close to the old name). The check image that was used to buy $500 in ToysRUs? It had the OLD downtown office, the OLD name....didn't have my name spelled correctly (who looks at much of anything when using a check anymore....most of the young people running a cash register, don't even know what a check IS). It had my birthday, close, but wrong. The DL was forged also (it had a DL 764G9039x number.....so NOT MINE and not even a valid Tx DL...maybe it was a valid LOOKING Minnesota dl).
      The credit union, looking at the check image.....said that check image was probably stolen, out of a dumpster or out of a business....at least 10 years back!

      We have a friend who won't even use his Credit card, for online purchases. He has a re loadable CC from 7-11. He wants to buy something? he goes and loads in the money for the purchase and uses that card. It it gets intercepted.....great! The balance on the card is usually $20 or less.
      Pirating – Corporate Takeover without the paperwork
    • i paid a bill by putting the check in the mailbox; someone stole the letter and created checks using a laser printer using my routing info on the bottom of the check and they used the name and address on the check for someone they had identification for. they cashed a check for $500 and a debit transaction for $400. i got reimbursed for the debit transaction in a matter of weeks while it took 6 months to be reimbursed for the check. i now take the 2 checks i write a month -- and everything else -- directly to the post office.

      i caught this the day after it happened only because i was checking my account to make sure the monthly debit transaction i set up for a new insurance policy had been processed.
      2,000 miler