Identity Theft, Parrt 3

As far as the folks who stole my debit card, conned the bank into a new PIN, and went on a spree... they (apparently) wound up using a fixed address that belonged to 'em, and also used the card on camera in a local big-box store. Not sure whether the bank will continue to press on that one, or what's going on, but I'm interested to hear back.

Credit Update

So, I think I've gotten personally about as far as I'm getting, for the time being.

I'm down to one negative account with Equifax and Experian, and no negatives at Transunion. The account hits "seven years since last missed payment" this winter, and I'm not planning on using the credit for anything until next year at the soonest, so I'm waiting instead of pestering at the moment.

This site's had 3000 hits at this point, which makes me pretty happy. I'm hoping that someone who's taken a look at it has at least gotten inspired to move in the right direction. I'd love to hear feedback, if anyone's tried any or part of the strategy.

That said, I'm debating spinning this blog into a few related topics; personal finance, possibly focusing on credit and relatively low-income investment. If anyone's interested, let me know.

Credit cards

Every now and again, someone asks me: "how did you fix your credit?" Not my credit score, which is the primary focus of the site that accompanies this blog, but my credit itself. How did I get things paid?

In my case, I took an envelope, wrote "do not open" on it, put all my credit cards inside, and taped it to the inside of the apartment door. Every day when I left, I saw a visual reminder of my debt. I didn't take them out of the envelope, so I couldn't spend on 'em, either.

As I closed each card, either by eventually paying it off, or by negotiating with debt collectors, I took that card out, and cut it up. Victory! In the process, I very much learned to live on less, and realized that keeping up with the Joneses is a recipe for disaster, unless your last name is Jones.

(And again, as a side note; when negotiating with credit card companies, *always* get them to state, in writing, that once you pay, they'll remove all the negative things they've said about you from your credit reports.)

Experian on Identity Theft

So, the identity theft involved a bank card.  I checked all of my credit reports, and have done so once a week since then (no additional cost per report with the $15/month plan from Equifax).  Apparently, the bank also notified the credit reporting agencies that I may be the victim of identity theft.  

I know this because Experian sent me a letter, letting me know that they had been warned by a third party that I might be a victim of identity theft, and letting me know the last time my credit had been run.  Thank you, Experian!

At some point, I need to cancel the $15/month to Equifax, because that's going to pile up fast.

Identity theft

So, two weeks ago, someone decided to borrow my identity and go on a shopping spree... for plywood.

I had put a change of address in on a bank account I rarely use, as it's in Pittsburgh, and I'm in DC. There's no maintenance charge on the account, so I've never closed it. The change of address never went through, but I have online billing, so I never noticed the problem. Forward to early June, when my debit card was about to expire, and they sent me a new one. To my old address.

Whomever received that debit card called pretty much immediately, claiming they were me and that they forgot their PIN. When that was mailed to them, they went on a quick shopping trip to the local hardware store. Again, and again, and again.

The quick way to respond to this:

1. Call the bank, and cancel the account. Be calm and friendly, they're there to help.
2. Call the State Police. They'll be glad to help. Local police departments don't handle this often enough to be all that pro-active at it, as I learned to my dismay.
3. Check your credit report, to confirm it's not identity theft. If you think it might be, Equifax has a feature that can "lock" all three of your credit reporting agency accounts to all new inquiries, effectively stopping you (or your doppelganger) from opening new accounts until you manually unlock the credit reports.

I've temporarily signed up for Equifax's 3-in-1 Credit Monitoring until this has blown over, as well. Being able to check the credit report weekly (or daily!) at no additional charge has given me some peace of mind on this one.

Get Rich Slowly blog

I read a few personal finance blogs. The problem I always gripe about is that they post *far* too much for the average person to want to follow. Most days I either skim the topics or just skip reading them entirely. Today, I was skimming, and saw that Get Rich Slowly had a few really good articles.

Proper Care and Feeding of Your Credit Score
Anatomy of a Credit Score

I don't have experience with MyFico.com and Fair Isaac, but man, does that dude seem to shill for them in these posts. That said, MyFico does have a great brochure on:

Understanding Your Credit Score

Round Trip Times

Equifax takes over a month to get a letter back to you, albeit they address the issue in just under a month, probably putting them in the clear on "within a reasonable amount of time".

Experian has a lightning-fast response time, in comparison; maybe two weeks right now.

Experian Followup #2

So, the letter back from Experian states that the lender confirmed that it is my debt, and that "The FTC does not require that the consumer credit reporting company obtain documentation..." "nor does it require that consumer credit reporting companies act as mediators or negotiators in account disputes".

I'm debating whether to follow up immediately, again with the letter from the creditor stating they have no proof of that being my account, or whether to wait 90 days then follow up. I'm leaning towards the former, as the worst they can do is stop doing much about my letters. As this is the last thing I'm trying to get cleared, that might not be the worst punishment ever.

Reader Comment: Faxes

From one reader:
You might want to advise faxing in their disputes. I personally recommend doing that on my blog for several reasons.

a. If you need to resend your disputes, you have a copy and a fax transmission time from when you sent it the first time.

b. If you fax it on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, and the company does not address your issues in 30 days, they have to remove it. Put the onus on them to do the correcting in a timely manner. With people taking holiday vacations in December, you might end up lucking out and having them drop stuff off the report due to their inability to correct it quickly.

Experian Followup #1

Experian's round-trip time is pretty darn quick. The problem is that they don't seem to always address the question I send them.

I received their first response back after about two weeks. They have me down as having a credit card with a company that I've never had a credit card through. I called this credit card company, which was unable to find proof that that was my debt, and also, sent me a letter stating they did not have proof of my account.

I sent this letter back to Experian, and got back that this "was not sufficient proof", and that they're "conducting their own investigation to conclude within 30 to 45 days".

Being they already investigated this the first time and said they checked with the bank, I'm moderately salty they're going to take over a month to make a check that took me four days roundtrip. I'll post back how this one goes.

Site Up

The website is up, and the explanation is fairly complete.

If there's anything that doesn't make sense or could be clearer, please let me know.

If you have experience with the process, and can give feedback, it'd be much appreciated.

(Thanks!)

One Month In, One Down

So, after a month:

• Transunion came back a complete success. My record is clean with them now.
• Equifax has a few things left to work on. Sent a follow up letter yesterday.
• Experian has a few things left to work on. Sent a follow up letter yesterday as well.
  

It's April 1st, and I'm home sick from work with an awful cold, so I decided to type up this website to explain what I did to my friends. If it helps at least one person, well, it certainly beat the heck outta daytime television. Once I hear back from Equifax or Experian, I'll post here and let you all know how it went.

Transunion jumped my credit score from 600 to 737, which was *amazing*. I cancelled my account with TrueCredit, their ongoing reporting service, as soon as I figured out this was about as good as it's going to get.

Moved over from WordPress

I'd previously been using a WordPress blog to get going with Fix Your Own Credit, but decided it was easier to have someone else manage my software for me. Since I'd already been using another Blogger account happily, that brings me here.

Anyways, I'll recap. On March 1st, this year, I looked at my credit score. It was around 600. I looked at paying a lawyer or credit repair company to try and raise that score. Meanwhile, a friend of mine was going through the same process, and his mother advised him "why not figure out what the lawyers and companies do, and just save yourself the money?"

He went the lawyer route, which is working out well for him, but costing a good bit of cash. I went the self-help route, feel that I succeeded, and put together my website to document how I did it. Meanwhile, I added this blog as an ongoing update as to how the end of the process is going for me, and to post up any feedback I get from the site.

FYI, the credit score, after two months, jumped from 600 to about 750. More on that in further posts.