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Dude that truly sucks, I'm sorry you have to deal with that. My only suggestion is a Credit Monitoring service to start.
Keep an eye on your credit report for the next few months to a year. It's possible they opened credit cards in your name.
may want to look at getting lifelock
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25/month or 275/year doesn't sound too bad. especially if her info is already out there and seems like it's just going to be a matter of time before someone starts creating more hell for you guys.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Danimal
This needs to be put in the FAQ section...Nice!
Call all 3 credit bureaus and place a consumer statement on them requiring contact to open a new account.
Very, very good move.Quote:
Originally Posted by netsecsys
[Beer]
+1 on lifelock. I have been with them for years and they catch things early. Well worth the money.
By law you are allowed one free credit report a year. I would get this one for now, then follow the great advice from the others here..
FreeReport
Official FTC Site
I joined lifelock a bit ago.. I know it's nothing that I can not do on my own.. but not like I have all the free time in the world to call all the credit agencies and speak w/ them.
DON'T USE DEBIT CARDS!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This shit can't happen with a credit card. By LAW your total liability is $50 (and thus the banks tend to shut it right off and call you when something way out of bounds happens)
Debit cards, it's only the goodness of their hearts that makes it stop and may or may not make you whole.
If Debit cards are so good for you, why do banks push them so?????????????
exactly
Also, put your wife on an allowance.
Don't waste money on "LifeLock" or any of the credit monitoring. Place a "Fraud Alert" immediately with all three credit reporting agencies. ...You can do this online for each of the credit reporting agencies. ...or actually, I believe if you file a "Fraud Alert" with one company, it automatically get's sent to the other two companies. Do this immediately! Also, by placing these fraud alerts, you are entitled by law to a free copy of each credit report. (You are also entitled by law to a free credit report yearly from each of the credit agencies) Experian and Equifax credit reports can be obtained on their websites. I believe the TransUnion report has to be ordered and mailed to you.
Next, go to the website again for each of the three credit reporting agencies and place a permanent "Freeze" on your credit reports. By doing this, if someone ever goes to apply for credit and uses your information, the company/person trying to pull your credit report/score won't be able to do it until you provide the security code that is given to you when you freeze each credit report. Awesome security measure!
LifeLock and credit monitoring only do stuff that you can already do on your own. They try to make it sound like they have special powers, but they don't. Don't waste money on them.
PM me if you have questions!
I use IDExperts for my family. Its $12.50 a month for all of us. It isn't like Lifelock (a credit monitoring service), they simply do the work for you when your identity is stolen. Basically you are paying for an expert to go to bat for you in a identity theft situation.
As far as the lifelock services, you can do those yourself. snichols post above mine lays it out well.
When you do a fraud alert with one credit agency they are required to inform the other two agencies, so you don't really need to fill out all 3.
One other thing you can do to protect your identity is fill out an "opt out prescreen" form which will help reduce the number of unwanted credit applications you get in the mail.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Danimal
Treat her like a child and shame her into taking responsibility for her financial future.
In all seriousness get a credit card for her, do not give her a debit card, and let her keep her money separate except for portions of bills and saving for retirement.
You might want to talk to your home insurer, in Farmers you can add yourself and your wife for $46.00 a year. Complete credit monitoring for two, not a bad price! Also our new policy has fraud expense recovery coverage included in the policy.
Warning .. This is not a commercial! Sorry guys.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Danimal
fucking amen......
combined finances are seriously a huge burden... fight... stress. etc.. it WILL take a toll in some form or another at some point..
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Maybe look in to having her carry only a pre-paid credit card. Load it with $500 per month or whatever to buy her daily stuff with.Quote:
Originally Posted by Danimal
I am not sure of all the rules on debit cards compared to credit card liability. However, one thing you can do is set the debit card limits low at the bank, ie $250.00 a transaction and $500 a day then they cannot drain it quick.
Also sweep money from the account into another that has no cards, so that the money in the debit card account only gets transferred as needed when you have bills to pay.
Fixed that for you.Quote:
Single guys, don't get married!
Seriously, that sucks loud and hard! And I agree with the separate accounts. Joint accounts suck donkey balls.