Followup Post to our earlier post on Credit Card & Personal ID Security Info
02/15/2012
(Thank you Dorothy for emailing this to Dinar Recaps)
(While the attorney's free security protection advice is all sound, please post an additional enhancement to his list. I am a bank compliance officer, which means my job is to keep up with all banking laws and regulations.)
There is a better protection for your credit report - FREEZE your credit report. You have to contact each bureau separately to do this. Use the toll free numbers the atty listed. You will be provided with a code that you must give to a bank for a loan or store for new charge card. DO NOT carry this code in your wallet!! Lenders cannot access your credit report at all without this code. The only other way to get around this freeze is for you to call and request the freeze be temporarily lifted for a certain period of time (week or two) or for a certain type of transaction. Example -- tell the bureaus you are going car shopping for the next week or 10 days. Car dealers or auto finance companies will be allowed access to your account.
If you experience a stolen wallet, cards or checks - the bureau will typically place a fraud alert on your report. Just means the lender should ask you a few more questions to confirm your ID. If your file a police report you can request an EXTENDED FRAUD VICTIM alert on your credit reports. For this you only have to call one bureau and that one has to let the others know as well. The Fraud Victim category requires you to provide an alternate contact means for the lender to call you to confirm your ID in a setting that is not face to face. If you only have a cell phone, this can be a problem. Also regardless of how much I yell at staff, they make loans all the time to folks with these alerts on their credit reports because too many "credit protection" or "credit repair" schemes just do this on your reports for a nice fee you paid to them for something you can do for free, and these crooks don't provide an alternate contact method - thus watering down the effectiveness of the purpose of a Fraud Alert or the Extended Fraud Victim alert for everyone. SO BE SURE TO FREEZE YOUR CREDIT REPORT for ultimate protection.
-- From a fellow Dinarian who is a bank compliance officer. No, sorry, I have no inside sources at all about foreign currency values or screens. Wish I did, but even my fellow compliance officers at the mega banks don't have access to this type of info. either.
http://www.dinarrecaps.com/1/post/2012/02/followup-post-to-our-earlier-post-on-credit-card-personal-id-security-info.html
02/15/2012
(Thank you Dorothy for emailing this to Dinar Recaps)
(While the attorney's free security protection advice is all sound, please post an additional enhancement to his list. I am a bank compliance officer, which means my job is to keep up with all banking laws and regulations.)
There is a better protection for your credit report - FREEZE your credit report. You have to contact each bureau separately to do this. Use the toll free numbers the atty listed. You will be provided with a code that you must give to a bank for a loan or store for new charge card. DO NOT carry this code in your wallet!! Lenders cannot access your credit report at all without this code. The only other way to get around this freeze is for you to call and request the freeze be temporarily lifted for a certain period of time (week or two) or for a certain type of transaction. Example -- tell the bureaus you are going car shopping for the next week or 10 days. Car dealers or auto finance companies will be allowed access to your account.
If you experience a stolen wallet, cards or checks - the bureau will typically place a fraud alert on your report. Just means the lender should ask you a few more questions to confirm your ID. If your file a police report you can request an EXTENDED FRAUD VICTIM alert on your credit reports. For this you only have to call one bureau and that one has to let the others know as well. The Fraud Victim category requires you to provide an alternate contact means for the lender to call you to confirm your ID in a setting that is not face to face. If you only have a cell phone, this can be a problem. Also regardless of how much I yell at staff, they make loans all the time to folks with these alerts on their credit reports because too many "credit protection" or "credit repair" schemes just do this on your reports for a nice fee you paid to them for something you can do for free, and these crooks don't provide an alternate contact method - thus watering down the effectiveness of the purpose of a Fraud Alert or the Extended Fraud Victim alert for everyone. SO BE SURE TO FREEZE YOUR CREDIT REPORT for ultimate protection.
-- From a fellow Dinarian who is a bank compliance officer. No, sorry, I have no inside sources at all about foreign currency values or screens. Wish I did, but even my fellow compliance officers at the mega banks don't have access to this type of info. either.
http://www.dinarrecaps.com/1/post/2012/02/followup-post-to-our-earlier-post-on-credit-card-personal-id-security-info.html
