Time to check your credit report
In today’s world of identity theft, I wanted to share some tips with you that I found out recently to help protect yourself from identity theft.
Recently I got a notice that someone attempted to open accounts at two different companies under my name. One was Home Depot which I got 2 separate letters in the mail where they declined the credit which made me suspicious and the other was a hit on my credit report from Best Buy.
Helpful tips to protect your personal credit report
This is what I did, and I hope these tips will help you out.
- Go to Equifax.com and click on the link for their cybersecurity incident. It’s free and fast and it told me that my information had been compromised.
- Identityguard.com is a service I use to monitor my credit reports and if tell me every time there’s activity on any of my credit reports.
- I put a temporary fraud notification on my account at all 3 credit bureaus. This is free to do and can be done online. It only lasts for 90 days, but can be continually renewed.
- I put a “Credit Freeze” on my account at all 3 bureaus. This is a more permanent solution because it blocks anyone from pulling your credit report unless your account is “Unfrozen”, which you can do temporarily for a specific number of days or permanently. There is a charge for every freeze and unfreeze, but it’s not much.
- I did all of this in less than an hour. Which I felt was time well spent to protect myself.
In today’s world of crooks trying to steal from us, I wanted to share this information and I hope it helps you.
Adam Osborn
President and Owner of Ace Steel Supply