Written by Peg Doman
I had a notice from a bank that our application for a Victoria’s Secret credit card has been denied. Denied? We’d never applied for one! The statement said that Experian had supplied the information. So, I wrote a letter (you can’t call them to ask WTH), made three copies of the statement and mailed them off to all three credit bureaus, Experian, Equifax and TranUnion.
A Victoria’s Secret credit card was denied. Denied? We’d never applied for one!That was the second incident lately. Last month the first revealed to me that I had charged $49 worth of gas in Los Angeles. What? I haven’t been out of the state for years! I don’t loan my bank cards to family or friends and I certainly don’t loan them to strangers.
I think that it stemmed from the breach at Equifax. I had received a letter from them last year that our credit info was among those stolen by some elusive someone. They now have our credit card numbers, our social security numbers, our home address and business and home phone numbers, where we worked and God knows what else.
I had received a letter from Equifax last year that our credit info was among those stolen by some elusive someone.Having one credit card stolen is bad enough. A few years ago, my purse was stolen. Fortunately I noticed immediately and rushed back to where I had been. “No, no purses have been turned in.” I rushed to the two banks we use and cancelled all my credit cards. The thieves had already charged more than $800 by the time I reported it. I didn’t lose any money because the banks took the fraudulent charges off my card. That meant I needed a police report of the crime. That meant that I had to go through bank statements and call all the companies to whom I’ve been making automatic payments to give them the new numbers and wait for new cards to come. This is not a 10 minute task.
Now I’ll have to pay three credit bureaus to monitor our credit information or get an expensive policy that does it for me, and when the next application for credit comes into the bureaus, I’ll have to wait for a letter to get to me to confirm whether or not it was legitimate. This is a lot of bureaucratic hoo-haw to go through!
Well, I’ve learned my lesson. I scrupulously go through my bank statements to look for looters. I’m going to pay for credit monitoring. A once a year free credit statement from all three bureaus is not enough. We’ve been hacked and it’s up to us to keep our damage minimal. Every time I make a purchase, there’s the potential for a theft. Every week there is news of some agency being hacked. It’s a fiscally dangerous world out there.
Damn you all who haven’t guarded the data that could destroy our well-being and credit. We end up paying the price.As adults we check on our kids, we check our messages, and we get medical check-ups to eliminate potential problems. Who would have thought that we would have to check on those who have the details of our lives? Damn you Facebook. Damn you Equifax. Damn you TranUnion. Damn you Experian. Damn you Wells Fargo bank. Damn all agencies, government and private, that don’t have adequate security checks to keep us safe. Damn you all who haven’t guarded the data that could destroy our well-being and credit. We end up paying the price.
That is a horrible incident, and I hope that you will soon be done having to deal with it. I have never understood why credit cards and anything that identifies you are hooked to the social security number. My German social security number is totally different from that of my former personal ID which is different from that of my former passport and from my drivers license and my tax ID. Nobody would even want my social security number – you cannot steal with it. Admittedly, it’s convenient to have everything under one number. But it’s also highly dangerous. I mean – we are supposed to use different passwords for anything we log on at the computer. Only our official documentations obviously don’t …
Well written, compelling article. Means a wake-up call for me to be more diligent about checking my credit. Thanks!
I am still amazed that the credit reporting bureaus loss of our information has been transformed into a sales opportunity for those same bureaus. When other companies lose our information they usually offer some help in the form of free credit monitoring for a year. While free credit monitoring does not solve many issues, at least we are made to feel the company is on our side. When credit reporting bureaus have had huge data breaches, they offer to SELL us credit protection. I question why they should profit from their lack of security and why should we trust a company to protect us when they have already demonstrated their inability to do so. These companies apparently will not do the right thing on their own. This is a textbook case demonstrating the need for government regulation.
Hi, Fred,
Thanks for reading and thanks for replying.
Experian did offer the ability to put a lock on my credit information, but that was for six months. Not long enough.
I too am amazed at the egregious opportunities for companies make you pay for their mistakes. I don’t know how the government could regulate the spread of our information. I think we need to stop making our SS#s the lingua franca of commerce.
Peg Doman
Appreciate your article and I, too, wish you a speedy recovery of normalcy to your life in this regard.
Perhaps it was just a typo, but it appeared a couple of times; “TranUnion” should be TransUnion,” with an “s”. I only mention this in case someone else chooses to contact that credit agency.
Hello, Dave,
I’m feeling better about the hack just by doing what I did do; however, I don’t know how reasonable those feelings are!
Thanks for the heads up about TransUnion. That’s one reason spell check doesn’t pick up on non compliant spelling.
Peg Doman
Thanks Peggy. I like what Fred said, and your determination to spread the word. I lose credit cards often enough that my information changes almost daily. It’s not subtle, but so far has worked. Not so good when I find credit cards under the front seat in my car right after I have reported the card lost, though.