I had an interesting conversation this morning with an instructor at my gym. A while back, she left her purse sitting on the console of her car while she worked out. Sadly, the worst happened, and when she returned to her car, the window was smashed and her purse was gone. Turned out the day her purse was stolen, a number of gyms had the same bandits go through their parking lots. First point: Never ever leave an item of value visible in your car.Bad right? Well sadly that wasn’t the worst. After cancelling credit cards and closing out accounts, she thought she was safe and put the incident out of her mind. Fast forward to her vacation in Costa Rica. She goes to withdraw money from her new checking account via the ATM. The account was cleaned out and running on overdraft!
She had just made a huge deposit prior to leaving for the trip, and found out she was $10,000 poorer than when she left.
Turns out she had her social security card in her wallet the day her purse was stolen. This is the worst that can happen—well it’s the best if you happen to be a thief… But the worst for the rest of us. The thief, had her social security number and her driver’s license, so he was able to go to her bank and access her new accounts!
She put a lock down on her credit, or else the thief could have opened credit cards in her name. I actually had a client who had his wallet with social security card stolen and the thief bought a car within hours!!!! By the time he locked down his credit, he was the owner of a new car. A car that he never saw and never had a single payment made, and ended up ruining by borrower’s chances of buying a new home.
Identity theft is rampant and very lucrative for thieves. Second Point: Never keep your social security card in your wallet. This would also apply to paystubs or other documentation that might contain your social security number. The combination of social security number, address, and birth date opens you up to every type of credit abuse and identity theft. With tax time upon us, many people have files in their car with this information—get it out of the car immediately, and put it in a locked filing cabinet.
Sadly up until a few years ago, social security numbers were widely used for identification purposes, and many of these old records are ending up in landfills. It makes sense to have an alert on your credit, so you know every time your credit is accessed.
Car thieves aren’t the only ones to watch out for. If you are in the habit of leaving items in your home out for future filing, think about people coming into your home. Do you have teenagers with friends who visit? How about cleaning people, carpet cleaners, handymen? Guard your social security number like you guard your other valuables. This may be your most valuable possession of all! Untangling true identity theft can take hundreds of hours and be an ongoing battle, once your social security number is out. They literally sell it and re-sell it, so after you clean it up, the nightmare is not necessarily over. And as my instructor at the gym found out, your social security number is with you for life; it’s not an option to change it due to identity theft.
As a mortgage lender we deal with credit for better or worse on a daily basis. Third Point: Your good credit truly is your most valuable possession. Without good credit, you can’t finance, a car, a home, or even get a credit card. Good credit isn’t good enough. It used to a fico of 700 was the gold standard for superior credit. We are now seeing investors who won’t lend under 780 in specific circumstances. If you have any questions on identity theft or on how to maximize your credit score, please call The Hedges Mortgage Group at Prime Lending at 919 961-6915.
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