Time to check your credit report? A cautionary tale..

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saluki
saluki Member Posts: 2,287
edited June 2014 in Life After Breast Cancer

I get most of my bills on-line.  Obviously, if I could I would choose not to carry a balance and I have some big balances. Since my Medigap insurance premium itself eats up half of my Medicare disability I don't even cover daily needs.

Anyway, my bills are paperless and since I don't put any new charges on I was surprised to see my bill going up.  (Yes I had one of those cards that decided to gouge their customers by doubling their rates) but even so my balance still looked odd since I had just made a payment.   

I never even have this card out of my pocket----Turns out someone has gotten the cc number and using it to finance his dating services and all manner of downloads...........Yell

Since I'm not using the cards and have paperless statements I wouldn't be looking for charges which you download separately and are not readily apparent.

Anyway, I'm requesting a report from all three credit reporting agencies-  Its free---You are entitled to a free report from each of the agencies every twelve months............

http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/menus/consumer/credit/reports.shtm

http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/credit/cre34.shtm

This is the only site sanctioned by the government  and I'm going to use it.  They do offer to let you download your report but since the card has never been out of my pocket I don't know how they got my info in the first place except possibly on-line-------I'm going the snail mail route........I hope I don't find any more surprises.

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  • WellWater
    WellWater Member Posts: 6,546
    edited February 2009

    A good reminder for everyone to keep an eye on the credit agencies.  A friend of mine had her business banking account hijacked online - what a mess.  I decided to go ahead and sign up for Identity Theft Protection - because I get sensitive documents online for my little business I signed up the one that not only protects my identity but I also have a super-duper virus/firewall protector on my computer.  It is costing $14.99 per month - that's expensive but hopefully it'll keep me out of trrouble.

    Good luck, Susie, I hope things work out ok for you......

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  • saluki
    saluki Member Posts: 2,287
    edited February 2009

    I have Comcast and its has McCafee included as a virus/firewall.  It spends so much time scanning and updating that its been infuriating but it has never turned up trojans or otherwise---so I am perplexed how this happened unless it was one of the numbers stolen was it Best Buy or Circuit City a while back.

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  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Member Posts: 1,376
    edited March 2009
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  • lovinmomma
    lovinmomma Member Posts: 1,879
    edited February 2009

    That sounds so neat the virtual number!  I will have to go find that!!

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  • iodine
    iodine Member Posts: 4,289
    edited February 2009

    I use that one time credit card number from Paypal.  Good idea!

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  • koshka1
    koshka1 Member Posts: 678
    edited February 2009

    Hi Ladies...

    I worked for Equifax for years....and have a lot of stories about identity theft.

    My advice....

    check your credit report at least yearly, and never give someone your credit card and don't lose site of it.....careful with debit cards at gas stations, i have a lot of friends that got their identity, or their pin #'s stolen there...

    hugs and be strong

    kosh

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  • iodine
    iodine Member Posts: 4,289
    edited February 2009

    On the other hand one can be TOO careful.

    My dh, since he retired, has become pretty paranoid.  He cks our cc and cking accts DAILY.  When I am out and about or out of town, he sees everywhere I go and what I charge.  He swears he's not monitoring me, but it sure makes me angry when he brings up something or someplace I've been.

    Never fear, I have a chunk of change hidded in my purse (God forbid I get mugged) and when I want something he needn't know about, I pay cash.  My mom told me to Always, Always have money of my own that I didn't need to account for.  I love consignment stores and I keep any and all money that I get from them.  LOL

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  • Jorf
    Jorf Member Posts: 498
    edited February 2009

    When I did my credit report 1/1 (ish) as I've done for a while I noticed the recommendation to spread them out through the year - do one agency every 4 months. Sounded like a good idea.

    I love the virtual number thing. How do you do it? With the credit card company (call up AMEX?) or with the vendor?

    Of course, I've gotten new debit cards from my bank twice now in the past year because "a major retailer" did something that compromised my numbers.... PIA. I use them at Whole Foods, Trader Joes, Target and occasionally a chain supermarket (I don't consider the local coop a "major retailer".)

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  • Jorf
    Jorf Member Posts: 498
    edited February 2009

    Sorry, I forgot to add this to favorites and the only way to do it is to post another post.

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  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Member Posts: 1,376
    edited March 2009

    .

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