It can happen so easily. You toss a piece of important mail, enter your card on a bad website, or even something as easy as swiping your card at your favorite store now a days. If you aren’t paying attention to your credit identity also known to most as your credit score is incredibly important. Your credit score depends upon how responsible you are with your debt. Do you keep high balances? Make late payments? Do you have lots of credit cards? What is your yearly income? All these things factor in when important decisions are being made when it comes time for you to buy a house or vehicle.
I remember when I was younger I use to never go over anything. I hardly even looked back or even kept receipts. Then one day I went to Staples and made a purchase. When I got home and looked online at my balance I realized that I was charged the wrong amount. I couldn’t find my receipt and was upset that I never even bothered to look at it. It was a real eye opener at how careless I was being with my finances. Luckily for my sake it had only been $40 but I couldn’t wonder what else had I not been paying attention to? What else had I paid or owed because I wasn’t doing what was needed to safe guard my finances.
Now that I’m older I’ve become a lot more financially responsible. Not only do I save my receipts now but I look at them and always make sure they are correct so I know I’m not being over charged. Now I also make sure to check my online statements regularly and go through and make sure all my receipts match my statements. If anything extra is there it needs to be looked into. Normally it’s just a missing receipt and can quickly be accounted for but once I had charges from a book company I never heard from. it actually charged my account three times in one month and I hadn’t caught it because they had used a name that seemed familiar to me when skimming online but when my receipts didn’t match up I realized it wasn’t mine. Luckily my bank removed the charges but it was a huge pain. Since they were repeatedly going in I had to change my debit card. This also meant I had to change all my automatic payment, saved info on online accounts, and so on. Such a pain!
Now, I’m excited to take it a step further. I’m going to be signing up for LifeLock Unlimited. I’m loving that they scan all my information on a monthly basis making sure no new accounts of any kind are being opened in my name. It watches my credit score and lets me know about important changes.
LifeLock Ultimate® is the most comprehensive identity theft protection service available which includes monitoring of bank accounts for takeover fraud.† You also get unlimited online access to your annual credit reports, a monthly credit score tracker and priority access to an award-winning Member Services team.
- The industry’s most complete Identity Theft Protection service
- 24/7 online access to your monthly TransUnion credit score
- Surveillance of unregulated global networks and file-sharing sites
- The ULTIMATE in identity theft protection
- LifeLock’s $1 Million Total Service Guarantee
- Daily monitoring of all three Credit bureau reports
- Checking and Savings account application alerts
I’ve worked so hard on building my credit.I’d hate to have some horrible stranger come in and destroy it all so quickly because I wasn’t paying attention or just didn’t know where to look.
You can join me! Use promo code “LifeLockSecure” for 10% code off one of their plans and help detect and correct your identity!
Have you ever been a victim of identity theft?
I have not been a victim of identity theft but a good friend of mine was back in 2004. It was a headache for sure! It took years to get worked out too. Thanks for sharing about LifeLock. I appreciate it!
I haven’t been a victim of identity theft but I did have my credit card compromised at the gas pump once. Total scary moment for me.
Thankfully, I have not been a victim of identity theft, but MAN it’s scary! Good thing LifeLock is there to to help keep us safe!
I’ve never been a victim of identity theft, but I try to protect myself as much as I can. Also love having Lifelock to help!
so important to be safe.
I have never been a victim of ID theft thankfully but I do have LIfelock and I love how they contact me to confirm when I apply for accounts or make changes.
I’m constantly checking over my accounts to make sure they’re accurate too. I do have LifeLock though so that’s peace of mind as well.
I’ve had my credit card number stolen at a gas station before… they place a special gadget that keeps the info from the strip and they can print a new card then use it to get cash from am ATM. Thankfully I noticed the charge since they were in another city, and my bank was great about reversing the charges but in a matter of a few hours they managed to hit multiple ATM’s with $100 maximum each and grab quite a bit of money… We need to protect ourselves and Lifelock is a fabulous option.
I had my purse stolen once and still worry that someone may use my identity.
Thanks for the informative post. Now I have to check out LifeLock. I can’t even imagine having my identity stolen.
Yes.It is NO fun to feel violated like that… when it is such a secret thing too. Thankfully my credit card company has handled it with grace multiple times for us. 🙂
Identity theft is such a scary issue!
LifeLock has given me such peace of mind after someone used my information for their medical bills a few years back. I didn’t have LifeLock at the time but now that I have it I feel so much better knowing I would be made aware of changes.
I have LifeLock, they send me emails and calls anytime something is wierd on my credit…or anytime we use it> I got a lot of calls during our mortgage this month!
I don’t have lifelock yet,,but the credit card company will call me if they have any doubts about purchases I make,,they have stopped my card a time or too when concerned,and I have to call them,totally embarrassed at the store,,but Id drather be embarrassed than someone stealing my card and using it
I balance my checkbook every month without fail, and even sometimes during the month if I get behind on my receipts. I had a problem once where someone stole my debit card, and took money & found out later he passed the card around, and everyone filled up their gas tank off of my checking account. Fortunately, I not only found out who did it, and his face will never look the same, and I highly doubt if he’ll have children, but I did get my card back & Chase did cover the theft. Love that bank, AND…. he got arrested and yes, I did press charges so I got lucky.
I think identity theft is more scary than burgarly theft, mostly because it takes years to sort it out with the credit companies. I’ve got it all locked down thankfully, but still you have to be careful.
Identity theft is becoming more and more of a problem. I have a friend going through this right now.
It’s definitely smart to be conscious and look over things multiple times. I didn’t always used to be as responsible as I am now as well.
life lock sounds like a great way to keep my credit secure