Identity theft comes in many different forms. The most common types of identity theft are typically the ones that will hit your credit score the hardest. Since your credit score is essentially a history of all the money you’ve borrowed (and how you’ve paid it back) it can be devastating to have someone interfere with that score by stealing your identity. Naturally, a bad credit score makes it much harder to apply for a loan or take out a mortgage.
One of the most common types of identity theft is credit card fraud. Indeed, in 2018 there were over 130,000 reports of credit card fraud in the U.S. alone. This comes as no surprise since thieves only need a few of your personal details to start using your credit card. In fact, credit card fraud can come from something as simple as losing your wallet.
Ordinarily, if you miss a utility bill payment it doesn’t have any impact on your credit score. That is unless you repeatedly don’t pay your bills because you never knew they existed in the first place. It’s possible that someone could use your identity to sign up for their own utilities. When enough time passes without payment, the utility company will send in a debt collection agency. It’s when that debt collection agency gets involved that your credit score takes a hit and by that point, utility fraud could have been going on for months without your knowledge.
It may come as a surprise but it’s not just you whose credit score could be hurt by identity theft: child identity theft is big money for fraudsters as well. Of course, it’s very unlikely that your toddler has applied for a credit card themselves (unless they’re really planning ahead), but anyone with access to your child’s Social Security number potentially could. Of course, no one constantly monitors their child’s credit score which means thieves can get away with child identity theft for years.
How to Protect Your Credit Score
All of this is very concerning, however there are various ways to protect your credit score. We picked out a handful that will help you stay safe.
Keep Your Details Secure
One of the most important things you can do is be very careful with your personal details. In particular, never give out your Social Security number unless it’s absolutely necessary. Often, identity theft is committed by someone close to the victim, so always keep any important documents with your personal information stored in a safe place.
Be Careful When Browsing Online
One key thing is to make sure your passwords are strong, unique, and regularly changed. Consider investing in a great password manager to help store all your credentials securely. On top of that, always use a VPN on public Wi-Fi to ensure your connection is protected from potential thieves. Public Wi-Fi is notoriously unsafe, and you don’t want to be caught out as you’re logging into your online banking. Indeed, always make sure when you’re giving away any of your personal details online that you’re using a secure website and connection. We also recommend using a good browser that will alert you if you’re on an insecure website.
Track Your Credit Score
There are various ways of tracking your credit score. You can do this yourself by getting in contact with the credit bureaus individually, but you’ll soon find this can become a time-consuming task. You could also consider using a dedicated credit monitoring service. Although credit monitoring services are the best way of monitoring your credit scores, if you want total coverage, you’re better off investing in dedicated identity theft protection, like IdentityIQ.
The Best of Both Worlds
Good identity theft protection will monitor your Social Security number and inform you of any irregular use. As well as extra features like dark web monitoring, what makes identity theft protection stand out is how the services help you in the event of identity theft. Services like IdentityIQ have specialist support staff to help guide you through the recovery process and offer up to $1 million in identity theft insurance.
However, some identity theft protection companies, like IdentityIQ, can offer you the best of both worlds. With its own specialized credit monitoring service (aptly named MyScoreIQ) IdentityIQ provides you with daily credit and identity monitoring but also monitors the value of your FICO credit scores. These are the most widely used credit scores on which lending decisions are based, so it’s vital you keep this score high. No matter which service you choose, it’s hard to underestimate just how vital keeping your credit score safe from identity theft can be.
Best Identity Theft Protection of 2023
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