It seems like every single time you turn around, you hear about another security breach involving a big company or a government agency. There’s not much you can do to prevent companies or government agencies that have your private information from being careless with it. Your best bet is to always be vigilant.
Here are three steps you can take to protect your accounts.
Check your credit report for accounts you didn’t open. You can request a free credit report from the major credit monitoring companies (Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion) by clicking here. You’re limited to one free report a year.
Place a security freeze on your credit. You’ll need to unfreeze your report before applying for new credit. But this will prevent crooks from using your account. This will need to be done separately with each of the credit monitoring agencies.
Click here to freeze Equifax.
Click here to freeze Experian
Click here to freeze TranUnion
If you think your accounts have been breached, place a fraud alert on your credit report. You’ll have to do that individually with each of the credit monitoring companies.
Click here for Equifax.
Here for Experian
And here for TransUnion
Last week I received a check from Transunion Redress Administrator in the amount of $19.36.
After the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) looked at certain practices industry wide.
I once had dealings with the “free credit report” company which turned out not to be free at all. I resolved the dispute through my credit card company and was refunded in full. If this check is a penalty for dishonesty, then I’ll gladly take it.
Corporate GREED is another thing wrong with America.
I have often wondered why we even need someone keeping track of our business from a distance. Each person is different and has different criteria for wanting or needing credit.
The Annual Credit Report site in your newsletter doesn’t fill in my S/S number correctly. If they can’t set up a working website how can I trust them to keep my info safe?
Thanks.
Good Info, Cyn, thanks for monitoring this topic.
Our government protects these reporting agencies. It would be enlightening to understand why.