OutOfDebtBlog.com

A couple of weeks ago I received a phonecall from one of my credit card companies - asking me if I’d heard about ID theft in the news lately - and if I’d be interested in buying “protection” in the form of a subscribtion to my credit record.

While I believe that knowing what is on your credit report is a very good thing - and will be running a series of articles in the next few weeks on how you can work to improve it - I kindly turned down the offer.

Why? Well - they were offering me the subscribtion at a rate much higher than what I can get it for elsewhere - and I am trying to get out of debt…. so needless to say I’ll take the cheaper option ;o)

Yes - I have heard about ID theft. After all I’m not living under a rock! ID theft is the fastest growing crime here in the UK, and in the US about 1 in 12 have experienced some kind of attempt. Today shredding up all your personal papers before putting them in the bin isn’t even enough anymore. In recent news here in the UK people have had their personal details “stolen” by news crews going through binbags outside their bank! Yes - you got that right! Outside their BANK!

So should you worry abou ID theft? Well - I’m not a great believer in worrying - since it doesn’t make things better. In fact - it makes things worse! But I do think that taking preventive measures is the sensible thing to do - for two reasons:

• By subscribing to your credit report you’ll be notified if a search has been made on it (which happens when you apply for credit). If you didn’t request any credit, chances are that someone else have - using your details!
• You get to know what information is stored on your credit file - and can work to correct any errors - and improve your credit score.

So how can you go ahead and set up a subscription to get your credit report? There’s multiple ways to go - but I recommend you go straight to one of the two major credit agencies, Experian and Equifax.

In the next couple of days I will be setting up a page here on OutOfDebtBlog.com with the relevant links, and advice on what services to go for, so you can sign up for their services.

Watch this space…..

Technorati Tags: Debts, ID Theft, Credit Report

Bookmark this post