Will 'Fraud Alert' or 'Security Freeze' hurt my credit?

I was notified that my social sec. number and date of birth was accessed by criminal hackers (crackers). I received a letter stating that I should palce a security alert and security freeze on my credit.

What impact can this have on my credit, getting home loans, credit cards, etc.?

Thanks in advance…:slight_smile:

you will simply be alerted everytime your credit changes for any reason. Balance changes ,inquiries ect. In some cases you may have to call or provide a pin # to allow companies to see your credit, small headache to avoida much larger one.

Thanks for that valuable info. Should I implement both protectionary services or one?

Which one?

Thank you, again!

Just have them inform you when smething changes, usually by email thats enough.

Good Luck

request the 90-day frauid alert. they will require a phone number contact for you before any credit can be advanced and will inform you of any attempted activity in your account.

What’s the difference between a 90-day fraud alert and a permanent one? Is there a permanent fraud alert?

From my understanding, there is a temporary fraud alert that each credit bureau can put on your file. We’ve been calling them 90 day alerts but I think each bureau is a little different. There is no permanent alert but the next step up is a 7 year alert. This requires paperwork and possibly a police report of some type to verify you have been the victim of fraud. I’ve used the 90 day alerts on a rolling basis with good results. Just monitor your credit report on a regular basis if you suspect your identity has been compromised.

My situation is something more and more Americans are facing: theft of database information with our personal information. It seems as if every month I hear about a bank, credit card company or university that had its dbase downloaded. It’s scary stuff.

Thanks for the info! I placed the fraud alert and will continue to do so for my protection.

Any other info from any one would be welcomed, though…:slight_smile: