The number of issues to contend with during these unprecedented times might feel exhausting. It’s important to recognize that you aren’t in this alone though, and that there are a number of resources available to help consumers with credit reporting questions or concerns resulting from the COVID-19 Pandemic. Here are 4 ways you can stay smart with your credit during these unforeseen circumstances:

Earlier this month, we learned that four members of the Chinese military were charged with hacking into Equifax’s computer system in 2017, causing the breach that shocked the world. With this type of headline back in the news cycle, it serves as a great reminder as to why it’s important to protect your data with credit freezes and credit locks.

After the Equifax security breach that impacted millions of US consumers, many have elected to place a credit freeze on one or all of their credit reports as a safeguard. While putting a freeze on your report helps protect against fraud, it can present challenges if the consumer needs to obtain legitimate financing. 

Planning a fun trip this summer?

It's important to relax and have fun on vacation, but remember that criminals are everywhere, waiting to take advantage of your lack of attention. It's likely that the last thing on your mind when you're vacationing is becoming the victim of identity theft. However, vacation time is also when identity thieves are at their busiest.

Mortgage Trigger Data is created when a borrower fills out a 1003 (mortgage application), and has their credit report pulled. This creates a credit inquiry event which is flagged on the borrower’s credit record.

The credit bureaus aggregate all of the flagged records on a daily basis and make the information available to paying marketers as a “trigger” file within 24-48 hours of the original mortgage application.  YIKES!  And yes, in case you are wondering, this is a totally legal practice.

Credit freezes are one of the most effective tools against ID theft available to consumers.  They allow you to seal your credit reports and use a personal identification number (PIN) that only you know and can use to temporarily "thaw" your credit so that legitimate applications for credit and services can be processed. That added layer of security means that thieves can't establish new credit in your name even if they are able to obtain your ID.

Oh no, not again!  Home-improvement giant, Home Depot stated it was currently investigating a possible breach involving “unusual activity that might indicate a possible payment data breach”.  This is the latest, in several data breaches, affecting some of the nation’s largest retailers.  While we are still unclear as to the extent of this latest breach, one thing is for certain:  you can never take too many precautions to help protect your identity!

Below are steps and recommendations that may help to protect you from potential misuse of your credit and debit information.