All posts by Rod Griffin
News of the Target stores security breach has caused many people to ask what they can do to protect themselves from misuse of their stolen identification information.
The system of fraud alerts that has been in place for decades in the credit reporting systems was designed specifically to help people who are identity theft victims, or have reason to believe they may be, to stop credit fraud resulting from that identity theft.
In the Target incident and similar data breaches, neither a temporary security alert nor a fraud victim statement on your credit report will stop the thief from using your credit card account.
But the alerts may help protect affected consumers from new credit fraud if the identity thief attempts to open new credit accounts using their stolen information.
These services are available at no charge to anyone who is a victim of identity theft, or who has reason to believe they may be a victim:
When I speak to people about credit reports and credit scores one of the things I always do is ask the audience members to raise their hands if they’ve requested their free annual credit report.
Sadly, on a good night only about half the people in the audience raise their hands. A new report from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) confirm
As 2014 nears an end it’s a good time for us all to start thinking about what we are going to do to keep our finances in good shape and moving along into 2015. At Experian, we are here to help you. During the coming weeks and months we will be providing more educational blogs, videos and Twitter #creditchats that will help you proactively manage, build and improve your credit. So let’s get started with one of the most common questions people ask me: How do I dispute information that I believe is being reported inaccurately?
I opened a few of my daily newspapers this morning (yes, the print kind!), and pondered some seemingly conflicting messages. In the Wall Street Journal, I saw the headline “Economic Reports Fan Fears.” In the New York Times, the top business story read “In a Shift, Debt Levels are Falling,” noting that American consumers are reducing their debt.