Your Credit Was Probably Compromised

The title sounds dire, but this situation warrants a warning like this. I would rather, despite the saturation of this in the news, you hear it again than not hear it at all. Read on...

​In light of the recent Equifax breach, taking precautions to watch and protect your personal information has never been more important. In past hacks, consumers could feel more responsible for the hack, and the decision they made to sign up with the company that was hacked. But this is different—none of us chose to have our information with these credit bureaus. That’s what makes this hack even more unbelievable in the eyes of the consumer. 

The first thing you should do, is GO HERE to check if you have been effected.

This is what I have done next:

1. I have put a freeze on my credit with the major credit bureaus; TransUnion offers a free monitoring system called TrueIdentity; Experian has a similar service, that costs about $11 for a freeze (and might be another $11 to unfreeze); Equifax is currently down, but it should be free for you to do right now, since they put us in such a mess; Keep in mind that this will restrict your ability to get a new credit card or use your social security number, but it is worth the peace of mind.
2. Set up fraud alert, giving you some sort of notification if someone tries to use your credit. Considering you have a credit freeze, this won’t be possible, but it may still notify you if someone tries.
3. Set up credit monitoring, and luckily Equifax is also offering this for free since they understand how big of a screw up this has been.

​Otherwise, be diligent about monitoring your credit. Read our previous blog post about how to fix credit, and more importantly using Credit Karma to keep an eye on your credit.

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Equifax was created to use our data to make money, and since we had no choice, they were given the keys to the kingdom. Now, they have managed to neglect the thing they were given to protect. As a consumer, you have to protect yourself, since we don't expect the same of these credit bureaus.

Let us know if you have any questions.