How To Protect Your Credit From Data Hackers

October 09, 2015

It seems like almost every week I’m reading about another company getting hacked and customer data being breached. Within the last month, I’ve read about at least five major security breaches. So far, I have been fortunate enough to escape being one of the impacted customers of these hacked companies.

Although, it’s possible that I haven’t escaped. I may simply be unaware. I’m sure being a hacker and breaking into large company databases must be a profitable business, but it sure does get annoying to hear about this kind of thing continually and wonder if my data is “out there” for public consumption. If that’s something you’re wondering, here are a few things you can do to build a few layers of protection into your life:

Sign up for Credit Karma and Credit Sesame. These services are absolutely free and will allow you to see your credit score any time you log on to their websites. Not only do you get your credit score, you get to see the factors that go into making up your score. That’s pretty cool!

They also have smartphone apps that can give you an alert any time your score is updated as well as any time there is activity on your account. If there is a credit inquiry or a new account opened, you will get an alert from each service. If you haven’t applied for credit, take that as a huge sign that something may be not quite right and start to research what is going on.

Mark your calendar to get a free credit report in January, May and September. But wait…don’t you only get one free report per year? Yes, but that’s one free report from each credit bureau and there are three of them.

Using the AnnualCreditReport.com website, you can get one from Experian in January, one from Equifax in May and one from TransUnion in September (or any variation of that). If you follow that pattern, you’ll never be more than four months from your next credit report where you can see if there are any new accounts in your name. If there are, I’m hoping that they’re actually yours.

With each of the credit bureaus, you can add a “fraud alert” to your file.  These last for 90 days and have to be renewed after that. When you place a fraud alert, it requires businesses to verify your identity before they can issue credit so they will have to contact you before a new account is opened. This could be just the delay that you need in order to protect yourself from fraud. The downside is that it has to be renewed quarterly so without a good system (I use my Outlook calendar) in place to track it, your alert may slip away just before it’s needed.

If you’d like to go to a stronger level than the fraud alert, there is always the “credit freeze.” With this, you put your credit file on complete lockdown. If you want a new credit card or car loan or mortgage, you have to proactively lift the freeze to apply and then reactivate it.

These are NOT free, like the fraud alert. Fees range from $3-$10 and then there are fees to lift and reactivate. They are also not temporary. They last until you remove the freeze.

If you are worried that your data is out in the world and running around like an unsupervised four year old with a case of Red Bull in his hand, you can use the steps above. Monitor your credit scores and activity, always be close to receiving a new credit report and place either a fraud alert or a credit freeze on your credit files. Thanks to the seemingly weekly hacks that we read about, these steps might just help you avoid becoming an identity theft victim.