Anyone in Austin check with Equifax to see if their data was stolen? We did and our data was! You can check by going to Equifax’s website.
Capital Budget Strategies, LLC, Austin’s best financial advisor and money coach, knows what it feels like to have your personal data stolen.
Along with the Equifax breach, this Austin financial advisor and money coach has had data stolen from my job with the Federal Government (Office of Personnel Management breach), my bank (Citibank breach), local Austin stores (Home Depot and Target breaches) and my healthcare insurance (Tricare breach). And those are only the breaches we know about.
Two quick things you can do to protect your data:
(1) Set up a Credit Freeze: For many financial transactions, such as opening a new credit card, buying a car, applying for a bank loan or turning on a cell phone, your credit report will be required. If someone has your personal data, they can obtain your credit report and make these transactions in your name.
By “freezing” your credit, you credit report cannot be obtained without your permission. If a business cannot review your credit report, the transaction will (hopefully) be cancelled.
Don’t worry Austin, it is easy! You can set up a credit freeze on-line and you can even “unlock” the freeze on-line for a specific time period or a specific business. This must be done with each of the three major credit bureaus: Equifax, Transunion and Experian.
Be patient Austin, the websites are not user friendly and they will try to sell you stuff. Just focus on the task at hand, like waiting in line for SXSW or ACL tickets!
We recently purchased a new iPhone. ATT required a credit check, so we went on-line and “opened” our credit for 24 hours. ATT got their report, we got our iPhone and our credit was automatically re-frozen. Austin businesses will use only one credit agency to obtain your credit report, so be sure to ask which one so you will only “un-freeze” that one.
Sorry to say, it will cost about $10 each time you “unfreeze” your credit, but that is so much better than dealing with a stolen identity. Who wants to explain to their significant other than that Frederick’s of Hollywood charge on the credit card was really not yours. Unless of course it was…
(2) Use PayPal whenever possible. Come on Austin, you know you love Amazon as much as Barton Springs! But when you input your credit card information to make an on-line purchase, that information is sent over the web to the business you are dealing with. Lots of opportunity for your data to be stolen. When you use PayPal, they pay your bill then automatically charge your credit card on file – your personal and credit card information is kept confidential by PayPal.
Sorry to tell you Austin, but chances are your data has been stolen or will be in the near future. To protect yourself as much as possible, review your credit card receipts and take the two steps listed above: Credit Freeze and PayPal.
Good luck Austin!
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