Protect your identity

What older adults should know

Bureau of Consumer
Financial Protection
You spend your life building your credit
record. It’s important to always protect
it. Even later in life, having good credit is
important. It can help you get a loan, rent
an apartment, or buy a home.
Protecting your sensitive personal
information from misuse is a way to
safeguard your credit. Unfortunately,
hacking and data breaches expose
the personal information of millions
of Americans. In some cases, hackers
take Social Security numbers and
birth dates. Unlike credit card
numbers, this personal information
cannot easily be changed – it requires
life-long protection against fraud and
Consider a security freeze
identity theft. A security freeze prevents lenders
or creditors from accessing your
There are many ways to protect your credit reports. If you know or suspect
sensitive information from misuse, that your personal information was
including monitoring your bank and exposed in a data breach, you should
credit card accounts, fraud alerts consider placing a freeze on your
and security freezes, and credit and credit reports with all three major
identity monitoring services. How do credit reporting agencies, Equifax,
you know what’s right for you? Experian, and TransUnion. Creditors
usually won’t offer you credit if they
Here are some choices you can use can’t access your credit report. This
to protect your sensitive information makes it harder for identity thieves to
from misuse and help guard open new credit and other financial
your credit. accounts in your name. So a security

2 PROTECT YOUR IDENTITY: WHAT OLDER ADULTS SHOULD KNOW

freeze on your credit report can help may be some differences in the
protect against fraud. If an identity information on your three nationwide
thief stole your identity, a credit freeze credit reports, so check all three and
is strongly recommended. compare them.

Review your financial Consider a fraud alert

statements regularly A fraud alert adds an extra layer of
Take time to review credit card, loan, identity protection to your credit
and bank or credit union statements report. If an identity thief stole your
regularly. Through mobile and online identity, a fraud alert is strongly
banking, you can see your financial recommended.
activity in real time. If something
doesn’t look right in your monthly Identity and credit
statements, alert your bank or lender monitoring services
immediately.
Credit monitoring services scan
your credit reports for you, alerting
Review your credit reports
you when a change occurs. Identity
Another way to protect yourself is monitoring services scan your
by reviewing your credit reports credit reports and other personal
at least once a year. Check your information.
reports for mistakes. Remember,
lenders make their decisions based Beware of credit repair scams.
on information in your report. Make Warning signs for credit repair scams
sure you recognize the information include requests to pay upfront for
on your credit report and that your services, promises to improve your
personal and financial details are credit score, and promises to remove
accurate and complete. You can negative information from your
request a free credit report every credit report.
12 months from each of the three
nationwide credit reporting agencies Are you a victim of identity theft?
(Equifax, Experian, and Transunion) Report it to IdentityTheft.gov and get
at annualcreditreport.com. There a recovery plan.

PROTECT YOUR IDENTITY: WHAT OLDER ADULTS SHOULD KNOW 3

Identity protection options

Option Benefits Limitations

Consider a Allows you some control Does not affect accounts

security freeze of your credit reports by you have already opened.
restricting access to them
and potentially preventing May be inconvenient.
new accounts from being If you have a security
opened in your name. freeze with all three credit
agencies and you decide
Are free to place with to apply for a new loan or
Equifax, Experian, and other credit, you’ll have to
Transunion. temporarily lift the freeze
with all three agencies.

Review You could recover some Does not guard against

financial or all of your money if you accounts being opened
statements act quickly. without your knowledge.
regularly
Federal laws protect
you if you have an
unauthorized transaction
from your bank account
and you report it
promptly. Problems can
be addressed before an
unauthorized transaction
reaches your credit report
and damages your credit
score.

Monitoring your accounts

is free.

4 PROTECT YOUR IDENTITY: WHAT OLDER ADULTS SHOULD KNOW

Option Benefits Limitations

Review your If you see accounts that To confirm your identity,

credit reports you don’t recognize, you credit reporting agencies
can immediately contact will ask you detailed
the credit reporting questions about your
agency and the company financial history before
that provided the you can access your
information. report. If you are unable
to confirm your identity
If you catch a mistake, you online, call the credit
can dispute the incorrect reporting agency.
information and notify the
credit reporting agencies You’re generally entitled to
to request that they only one free report every
correct your report. 12 months from each
of the three nationwide
Reviewing your credit credit reporting agencies.
report annually is free. You can request all three
at one time, or request
one from each agency
every few months. Once
you’ve received your
free report, you can still
request additional reports.
By law, a credit reporting
company can charge no
more than $12.00 for a
credit report.

PROTECT YOUR IDENTITY: WHAT OLDER ADULTS SHOULD KNOW 5

 Option Benefits Limitations

Consider a Requires creditors to An initial fraud alert lasts

fraud alert take steps to verify your a minimum of one year.
identity before they can You will need to place a
open a new account or new alert on your account
increase credit on an every year if you want to
existing account. extend the timeframe.

An extended fraud alert

lasts seven years, but is
only available to victims
of identity theft. It is not
available to consumers as
a preventive measure.

Identity and Identity and credit Most credit monitoring

credit monitoring services companies charge a fee
monitoring usually alert you to for their service, and
services changes to your accounts prices may vary. Before
by email, text message, signing up for a service,
or phone. make sure you understand
what you’re getting
and how much they’re
charging you.

If you have credit

monitoring, you’ll get
an alert after a change
has occurred on your
report. But it does not
prevent negative or
incorrect information from
appearing on
your report.

6 PROTECT YOUR IDENTITY: WHAT OLDER ADULTS SHOULD KNOW

Contact one of the three Learn more about identity
major credit reporting protection
companies Visit AskCFPB at consumerfinance.
gov/ask-cfpb
EQUIFAX
Security Freeze (800) 685-1111
Place a fraud alert (888) 766-0008
Submit a complaint
Equifax Consumer Fraud Division
PO Box 740256 Have an issue with a financial
Atlanta, GA 30374 product or service? We’ll
forward your complaint to the
EXPERIAN company and work to get you a
Security Freeze (888) 397-3742 response – generally within
Place a fraud alert (888) 397-3742 15 days.

Experian  Online
P.O. Box 9554 consumerfinance.gov/complaint
Allen, TX 75013
 By phone (180+ languages)
TRANSUNION M-F, 8 a.m. - 8 p.m. ET
Security Freeze (800) 680-7289 (855) 411-2372
Place a fraud alert (888) 909-8872 (855) 729-2372 TTY/TDD

TransUnion Fraud Victim Assistance

 By mail
Department
P.O. Box 2900
P.O. Box 2000
Clinton, IA 52733-2900
Chester, PA 19016
 By fax
(855) 237-2392

PROTECT YOUR IDENTITY: WHAT OLDER ADULTS SHOULD KNOW 7

October 2018