A fraud alert is one of the easiest things you can do to protect yourself from some forms of identity theft. They’re free to set up - you just have to remember to renew it every 90 days by contacting one of the credit bureaus.

The way they work is by placing a note in your credit files that ask any new creditors to call you before approving any new lines of credit. You provide the phone number you want to use. This way, a creditor has to verify it’s really you before opening a new credit card, getting a cell phone account, a car loan, etc.

Here’s how it worked for me recently.

I was shopping at Macy’s in my local mall. When the sales lady was ringing up my stuff, she asked me if I wanted to save 10% by using my Macy’s card. Where I live, Macy’s used to be Burdines and I did have a Burdines card. So I told her that I hadn’t used my OLD card in years and didn’t have it with me.

She got on the phone to see if my account was active. At that point, someone tried to take over. Instead of just checking on my old, existing account, they tried to open a new line of credit. Not a big deal since it really was me, but I didn’t want to do that.

My fraud alert stopped them cold as the person on the other end of the phone needed to talk to me for verification. I told him, “No thanks” to the credit offer and paid cash.

A couple of days later, I got a phone call at home from Macy’s to verify that I really didn’t want to open a new account. They were determined I was going to have it! But I just said “No”.

It was nice to know that the fraud alert system works and works well.

TrustedID identity theft protection includes placing fraud alerts for you and keeping them renewed every 90 days. It saves you from having to remember to do it yourself. And if for some reason, your identity still gets stolen, you’ll be backed up by their $1,000,000 warranty.