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Here a few tips if you've lost your purse or wallet. (This advice assumes you haven't recorded the contents of your wallet ... which is always a good thing to do). You can find your credit card account numbers and phone numbers to contact the issuers if you keep your monthly billing statements on file. But if you never wrote down your driver's license number then you'll want to contact your state's department of motor vehicles and follow their procedures for having a "fraud alert" attached to your number -- while they issue you a new driver's license. If, for some reason, you don't have immediate access to all of your credit card accounts, with the creditors' contact information, then you'll need to contact get in touch with each of the 3 big credit reporting agencies immediately. Here are their phone numbers: Trans Union - 800-888-4213, Experian - 888-397-3742 and Equifax - 800-685-1111. Request a free copy of your credit report. Anyone may request a free copy of his or her credit report from credit reporting agencies each year. And ask that a "fraud alert" be attached to your credit profile. The way the system is set up is that if you contact one agency and report identity theft they're supposed to contact the other 2 automatically. However, you shouldn't leave this up to them. Contact all 3 yourself. You can obtain a free yearly credit report (from all 3 credit reporting agencies) online at https://www.annualcreditreport.com. If you get your credit report online then make sure you either fully print out each report when it comes up on the screen, or are able to access the report online for a specific period of time without being charged. The credit reports will contain the account numbers and contact information of all your credit card issuers. If you close any accounts it's a good idea to have creditors note, "Customer requested this account be closed."." Be advised, however, that simply closing every credit account could make it difficult for you to obtain credit in the future. Perhaps request the fraud department of the card issuer if you can just close out the stolen number and replace it with another account number. A fraud alert activated with credit reporting agencies generally stays active for 90 days. Its purpose is to flag creditors about potential identity theft fraud with regards to your credit profile and help make them aware an imposter may be applying for credit using your stolen personal information. Although a verbal request for a fraud alert activates one for 90 days, many identity professionals recommend you also write each credit reporting agency and request that the fraud alert be extended up to 7 years. (This typically is done after looking at your credit reports).
Article Source: http://www.articlesolve.com
Joseph Farinaccio is author of "ID Theft 911: Step-By-Step Instructions for Stopping Identity Fraud" ... available at www.IdTheftHelp911.com
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