Check your credit report regularly

Patrick and I are refinancing our house. Last week we met with the mortgage guy, who, as part of the application process, printed out a copy of our combined credit report. Lucky for us he did, because otherwise we probably never would have known to scan the entire 15 page document to find one tiny section titled "Inquiry Information." He pointed it out, asking if either of us had applied for a Capitol One credit card on December 26, because Capitol One had inquired with each of the three credit bureaus that day.

He was able to discern that the inquiry had been on my behalf--he could tell because of the initials "CU" after the inquiry; apparently that means "co" something with regard to the loan we're taking. If you ever look at a joint credit report apparently "BU" indicates the primary borrower and "CU" indicates the co-borrower. Just a little identity theft sleuthing tip from me to you.

Anyway, our lender recommended that I call Capitol One to see what the inquiry had been about. Naturally I figured it was nothing, although I knew for sure that I had spent December 26 preping for my colonoscopy the following day and definitely was not trying to open credit card accounts. After a few days of "reminders" from Patrick, I called Capitol One tonight and learned that yes, someone had tried to secure a credit card using my social security number. F*cker.

Patrick will probably have a coronary because his mortal fear is identity theft. He shreds anything with his name and address on it and won't even print our address on our checks. Luckily he's at baseball practice now so he won't have to learn about my brush with identity theft until tomorrow....or sometime.

The good news is that now that I know about that inquiry nobody can mess with my credit. When something like this happens you contact any of the credit bureaus (I called Equifax) and they add a fraud alert notice to your credit report and also notify the other two credit bureaus to do the same. This means that for 90 days nobody can make a move on my credit without me being alerted, and also that I can request an additional free credit report from each credit bureau (everyone is entitled to one free credit report per year from each of the three credit bureaus.)

If you have a police report proving you are a victim of identity theft you can have the credit bureau put an extended fraud alert on your credit history--that one lasts for 7 years. The good thing about that one is, in addition to the fact that nobody can mess with your credit for 7 years, you get an additional 2 free credit reports and your name is removed from prescreened offers of credit or insurance for 5 years. I guess you need to get something out of the deal for having to wade through all this b.s. because someone thought it would be fun and profitable to secure credit in your name.

Anyway, I need to go research how to file the police report, etc...in case you want to do some reading of your own you too can check out the FTC's website about identity theft.