Have you checked your credit lately?
Posted on May 17, 2006 16 Comments
Three years ago while visiting my parents, I was surprised to open a piece of mail containing an unsolicited credit card. Slightly bemused, I asked, to no one in particular, “Since when can credit card companies actually send you a credit card without an application? What if someone else gets to the mail first?”
My mom answered first. “They can’t,” she said flatly.
“But look,” I insisted. “They sent me a credit card. To an old address.”
“You better call them,” she responded. “I bet there’s some mistake.”
I took the envelope home and three days later, called the company. They had all my information on file – my name, SSN and my old address.
“What is your mother’s maiden name?” continued the customer service rep. When I told her, she paused and asked me to repeat it.
“Her first name’s not Martha?” she inquired.
“Not even close.” I said. Right there, it hit me. Someone used my name and personal information to apply for a credit card. And it was nowhere as funny as those Citibank “it lifts and separates” commercials.
Over the next few months, I was able to cancel the credit card. I filed a police report, put a flag on my credit report and filed a claim with the FTC’s identity fraud group. I also learned that the thieves applied for the credit card at Soldier Field, during a Chicago Bears game, most likely to get a free gift. Probably a tee-shirt. And there you have it, my social security number for a tee-shirt.
Not every victim of identity fraud will receive a credit card in the mail. That’s why I’m reminding all my fellow budgeting babes and boys to check your free annual credit report at www.annualcreditreport.com. Although you won’t receive your FICO score without plunking down some cash, you can review all your credit cards that are currently open and see activity on each card. You can also learn whether you’ve accumulated any “negative” credit and review your personal information. Look closely. Any slight mistake you see should be given proper attention and investigation.
Since I started getting my credit reports, I’ve closed one fraudulent account, along with an account I signed up for in college that I had completely forgotten about. (That was before I knew anything about credit, and thought that cutting up a credit card was equivalent to closing account. Ironically, I opened that account for a tee-shirt as well.)
This year I noticed that an account I opened in college at Express (that one was for a one-day only discount) is still open. I’ve asked them several times to close the account, and I actually have documentation saying that Express complied. So I’m curious why my report still shows it’s open. Also, American Express is showing two different accounts that both appear to be mine – I have to follow up on that this week. It looks like they’ve somehow split my account into “due each month” and “flexible with interest” categories. I’ll be interested to learn why that is.
I’ll report back on what I find (hopefully without having to set foot in a mall – that could be dangerous). But meanwhile, let me know if you’re checking your credit report annually. Have you had any problems with the process? Found any errors? Have you totally forgotten about it?
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May 17th, 2006 @ 11:45 pm
I’ve been checking my credit report for years, but I remember when I first checked my credit report over 20 years ago (yes, I’m old). Anyway, it was a mess. In my 20′s, after I graduated from college and got a real job, I went credit card crazy. I opened a credit card account at every store I shopped at and that was even before they gave you 10% off your first purchase. I can’t even explain why I did this, but anyway, I had a lot of junk on my first credit report. I took me months to make sure that all those credit card accounts were closed, but I finally got through it. Now, I make sure I keep up with everything that’s on there by getting a report from each of the 3 major agencies once a year.
I enjoy reading your blog!!
May 17th, 2006 @ 11:57 pm
You can check your card for free annually from each of the three credit bureaus, so I check mine every four months — or that’s the idea, anyway. Never had any fradulent activity or incorrect info on the reports (except address misspellings), knocking on wood.
May 18th, 2006 @ 2:10 am
oh man, i just checked my report after reading your post and found out that i have a 60 day delinquent payment due on a card i rarely use! i’ll have to do some investigation to see if this is legit or not , but i’m glad it was brought to my attention. thanks to you!
May 18th, 2006 @ 3:16 am
I just got my report and found that somehow a dilinquent account I had has been linked to my brothers account b/c our names are similar. His credit is spotless, so I made sure I called them up and had his information removed. I guess if I disputed the account, they would have moved it to his.
May 18th, 2006 @ 7:08 am
I checked my report for free in August of last year and thankfully everything was clean. I’m going to check it again asap. My boyfriend checked his just recently though and discovered that he has basically no credit at all. He’s never had a real credit card and things he thought would be reported haven’t been. Only one report would even show up for him to look at it. Even so, however, there are a couple of errors that he needs to look into getting fixed.
May 18th, 2006 @ 1:08 pm
What worries me about your new credit card, is that the person who applied for it, new everything about you … except your mom.
You have to ask how did they get this info? And evidently they didn’t want to hurt you, just get the free gift, cause they could have mailed the card to another address. My gut tells me this is someone you know. I suggest checking your filing patterns, getting a locking file cabinet and a shredder if you don’t have one and make sure you put all your mail away when it comes in. Then consider your self lucky..it could have been someone who didn’t care about you.
I have to say I hope my gut is wrong, but if it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck….etc.
May 18th, 2006 @ 3:38 pm
Re: Amex–yes, they do split up a single account into two separate entities–open and revolving (for large or travel-related purchases). I only recently figured out that that’s what it was, as I make very few large and/or travel-related purchases. It’s kind of a pain, but oh well.
May 18th, 2006 @ 3:40 pm
I meant to add, when I first got my credit report several years ago, I couldn’t believe what I saw. They’d mixed me up with my mother–according to the report, I had credit cards when I was three and a mortgage by the time I was four. My mother’s name begins with the first three letters as mine, but come on! It was quite shocking, really.
May 18th, 2006 @ 8:04 pm
Thanks for the link. I just check my and discover a few errors. Hope it’s not too hard to clear up the mess.
May 19th, 2006 @ 1:27 pm
A few years ago my wife and I recieved a bill in the mail for a card we had never applied for. Come to find out a pre-approved app. had been sent to a previous address of ours and the current resident filled it out and sent it in with my wife as the primary and them as the secondary. They then purchased aprox. $3000 worth of items. A police report was filled out. It took a couple of years to get this straightened out. We have finally gotten it cleaned up but the credit reporting companies were very hard to deal with.
May 19th, 2006 @ 4:38 pm
Oh my god! Why don’t credit card companies require photo id in person and verbal confirmation on the phone to apply? That always seemed odd to me. They’ll seriously give credit to anybody.
May 19th, 2006 @ 6:37 pm
Nicole, have you seen this?
http://www.cockeyed.com/citizen/creditcard/application.shtml
The gist, if you don’t want to read it-a guy tears up one of those credit card applications, tapes it back together, and is issued a card, which he is then able to activate with a cell phone!
Scary. I’m off to buy a shredder.
Carrie, Bloomington
May 20th, 2006 @ 12:53 pm
Credit reports can be rife with fraudulent activity and errors that are never noticed until you go looking for your first mortgage, etc. My wife currently has two inaccuracies on her report, a 90 day late payment reported from Discover card in 2002 that is not true, and a delinquent medical bill for a mammogram in 2004 that she never had. These two items dropped her credit score by 180 points.
May 22nd, 2006 @ 4:08 pm
I checked my credit reports last month and found that, not only were there names listed that I never had, but also 5 credit cards that I never had. Crazy thing? 4 of those had been paid off and closed.
I checked my reports after someone stole my debit card number and decided to go on a spending spree in England.
This is a scary scary world anymore.
So: no more buying things online or by telephone. And I’m going to put that shredder to use!
May 29th, 2006 @ 2:20 pm
I check my credit report annual from all the three major bureaus. Recently I discovred 10 different spelling of my name. It is so important to check the report annually. I normally stagger them, taking a free report every 3 – 4 months.
September 16th, 2009 @ 12:20 pm
Thank you for the heads-up about this. True that identity thief is so rampant nowadays. Very alarming issue.
In fact this is one battle that we consumers do not stand a chance. Not even close. Extreme care is really important.