My (not so) excellent adventure first thing this AM

Roughly a month ago we went thru the exercise of canceling our credit card and getting a new one due to fraudulent use and went thru all the brain damage that associated with that. I give big kudos to our bank as I check our accounts every morning and they called before the bogus charges even show up on our account.

I checked our account first thing this am and saw a charge to Experian for a credit report. I instantly went into panic mode of course for all that that could entail. Put a dispute on the thing right away and then called the bank (who graciously wired in Experian for a conference call) to follow up.

Long story short, the person who copped our old credit card number set up a recurring account on Experian – for what I don’t know – but our credit report has not been pulled since the last time I pulled it so our information was not compromised – this time. The bank is killing the charge and Experian canceled the subscription. With any luck they’ll catch the guy (one ‘Anthony D.’ according to Experian but who knows if that’s a real name). I’m kind of surprised that that subscription charge rolled over onto the new card # but with the change of cards I’m guessing it may have gotten lost in the shuffle.

The reason I’m blathering about this is that there’s one thing you can do to make sure no one but you pulls a credit report – put a security freeze on your reports. I had freezes in place some time ago, removed them and never bothered to put them back on. They’re back on now! You’ll need to contact the three credit reporting agencies, Experian, Equifax and TransUnion. You can do it online or call, either way. In Colorado putting a freeze on is free; there may be a charge for removing it (Experian is $10) – in some states there’s a nominal charge for putting it on. You’ll be given a PIN number (or you can make up your own). If you wish to temporarily lift the freeze (for example if you’re buying something that requires the procurement of a report) you use that PIN number to allow the report request. No one can pull your report without your knowledge and permission. Equifax also will allow you to specify that your SSN will not show on your report – only the last 4 digits. I suspect that the other two agencies may have that as well.

Also, you probably know this by now but just in case, make sure you have an RFID blocking sleeve or wallet on your cards if they’re chipped.

Good advice about the blocking sleeve. We had a card compromised in London, spent months trying to take off the $3000 in fraudulent charges.

Excellent post, I didn't know about the freeze option but I'm on it now. (And I also check our accounts every day!)

Not long ago someone snagged our FirstBank VISA number and charged several hundred dollars to some online T-shirt company we never heard of. FirstBank fixed it IMMEDIATELY, though the vendor claimed they "couldn't find" the order.

And a few years ago some d-bag charged $5,000.00 in oilfield equipment to one of our CitiBank cards, which was also quickly resolved.

I honestly do not know how such people live with themselves. ??

This kind of stuff makes me crazy! I spent a couple of hours this morning on the phone getting it straightened out, probably another half-hour putting the freezes in place, and then I'm still fuming!

I'll bet if we added up all the time we spend doing this type of stuff, shredding documents, watching accounts, keeping lists of passwords & PINs, etc., it would add up to a considerable amount of our lives.

I don't even want to know what my blood pressure was this morning...

Grr! Just had someone charge $904 in an Apple store on our card. Luckily our Credit Union caught it and fixed everything the same day.

Ahhhh...'tis the season! Merry Christmas, Fred!

Glad it was caught and fixed quickly!