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spotcatbug
Veteran Member
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Clayton, NC
 
2006-05-28, 19:02

Just a follow-up (slightly off topic): my wife and I had an issue with identity theft a little more than a year ago. We learned some things. One biggy, if you're really worried about identity theft, is that you can turn off or opt-out of (or whatever the correct phraseology is) of the "instant credit" system.

Instant credit is what happens when a creditor gives you credit on the spot, with only a driver's license or some other easy form of id. For example, you can go to a car dealer and buy a car on instant credit. Just hand them a driver's license and they contact one of the big three and you get financed, well, instantly. Same for cell phone plans, store credit cards, etc. Basically all identity theft relies on instant credit. The loser steals your identity and then gets instant credit all over the place, buying things. If you opt-out of this "instant credit" system, your credit report is marked as not allowing instant credit. For the id thief, this makes your id worthless because they won't be able to get credit. For you, it's less convenient when you want to get things on new lines of credit; you can only get new credit lines in writing from the address listed on you credit report. This can be a real hassle, but if it works for you, it can give you real peace of mind about id theft.

After our id theft run-in, we turned off our instant credit option. The only problem we've had since then, in terms of getting a service on credit, was when I wanted to get a cell phone. Cell phone companies don't seem setup to deal with any type of transaction except one that starts with instant credit. It was a bit of an ordeal, but worth the trade-off, I think.

Ugh.
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