In the wake of the Equifax Security breach that affected at least 143 million citizen’s identities, at BCS we really do strive towards providing you with information on not just how to gain, but protect your money your money as well.
That would mean further locking down your Social Security number and preventing identity theft from happening with a credit freeze and detecting identity theft as soon as possible.
If you are even in the case that it does happen though, this guide should walk you through the steps necessary for you to monitor your credit & prevent identity theft.
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How to Monitor Your Checking Activity
In a sense, I feel that prevention and detection of such malice comes hand in hand, but it does come with some steps. Here’s what you’d want to do in the case that you want to protect your identity:
- Freeze your credit score – This will prevent anyone from opening a new credit account in your name and further prevents any third-parties from assessing a copy of your credit report. Note that there’s typically a minor fee attached when you freeze your account.
- You would then want to set up 2-factor authentication on all of your open accounts – this would allow you to confirm any account log in and money sent transaction by text message, email, phone call or confirm via an app.
- This is practically your stage 2 preventative measures; look into a satisfying credit monitoring service – You will receive notifications regarding new accounts, suspicious activity, or if something negative hits your credit report.
Below is various credit monitoring services that we fully recommend:
- Credit Karma allows you to pull your credit score from all three credit bureaus for no charge. Expect to get two free credit scores and a full credit reports that updates weekly with efficient tools and resources available to educate their members on the basis of credit scoring; what will affect the credit score either in a positive or negative way – from newly opened accounts to inquiries and collection items.
- Credit Sesame is a free credit monitoring service that has the ability to monitor all three credit bureaus on the daily. You’ll be able to set up alerts on each actively-opened account for free. Note that it cost $15.59 a month to get reports from all three credit bureaus.
- Experian’s Credit Report Monitoring combines a set of exceptional online tools and and exuberant variety in educational resources. Some pluses: Checking your own credit will not lower your score, 90% of top lenders use FICO Scores. It’s worth noting that the cost for reporting to 3 major bureaus is $39.95/month.
- Discover cardholders, Discover Bank recently introduced their new Free Alert Services that include Social Security Number Alerts and New Account Alerts. Essentially, they’ll notify you if they find that your Social Security number may be on a risky website or if any new credit cards, mortgages, car loans or other accounts are opened on your Experian credit report.
Get your free credit score + monitoring & credit report at CreditCard.com; if something changes on your credit report, they’ll let you know about it.
If you ever find yourself in this situation, I recommend keeping this game plan in mind:
- Start with IdentityTheft.gov ; there’s a thorough list on initiatives necessary to ensure that you will minimize your losses and regain your identity. This step would include calling the company and credit card issuers’ fraud department, filing a police report and close your accounts.
- Credit Resolution services can be utilized as well.
Credit Monitoring
This can be helpful for people who have lower credit scores and are working on improving them. Credit monitoring can also be useful for those interested in a service that monitors changes to one or more of their credit reports, especially when there are credit inquiries related to applications for a new credit card account or loan.
People also can use credit monitoring to signal when someone else applies for an account in their name, though credit monitoring may not scan for fraudulent credit card charges.
Credit monitoring can also alert you if a company checks your credit history or if a new credit card account or loan is opened in your name, among other things that directly affect your credit, according to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).
Conclusion
There’s always going to be preventative measures towards protecting your identity and that means locking in your favorite credit monitoring and Identity Theft protection services. Most of which, you can get from Credit Karma, Discover Bank, etc.
Don’t forget to freeze your credit report, set up 2-factor authentication on all of your open accounts and to call your card issuers’ fraud department. Try to recollect all fraud spending you did not make.
Don’t forget to check out our full list of Credit Card Bonuses for all of your credit card needs.
