November 2011
Protecting Your Children’s Credit and Your Own
As adults, we know to protect our social security number (SSN), but are you watching your child's? Kids make attractive targets for identity thieves because they have no previous credit history. Moreover, the crime could go undetected for years because parents don't typically check to see whether their children have credit records. Most fraud is not discovered until a child applies for a job or a driver’s license and realizes their SSN has been racking up credit card debt for years.
Why does this happen? Credit issuers often do not verify the age of the applicant. The information on the application is taken at face value. Credit reporting agencies and the Social Security Administration don't “talk” or share information. An applicant's age becomes official in the eyes of the credit reporting agencies when it is reported on the first credit application.
Just because they ask, doesn’t mean you have to tell. Often your child's school, physician's office, daycare center, or sport's team may request your child's SSN. Always ask why it is needed and how it will be protected. Just because there is a line on a form that asks for it, does not mean that you have to fill it in.
Four Ways to Protect Your Child’s Credit (and a Special Military Benefit for You and Your Spouse!)
1. Don’t carry your child’s SSN card, teach your kids about passwords and PINs, guard online networking sights, change passwords regularly, and teach the importance of not filling in information on websites
2. Your child’s bank account shouldn’t have overdraft protection and it should only be a savings account
3. Watch for mail arriving at your home in your child's name. One of the first red flags is a preapproved credit card offer. This may reveal that your child has an established credit record.
4. Just like you run one on you and your spouse every year (right?), run credit reports on your children for the presence of a credit file. If a credit file is not found, that's good news. An existing credit report on a minor may indicate a problem.
§ The official site to obtain a credit report is www.annualcreditreport.com
§ You can get a credit report from the official site once every 12 months for free which pulls from all three nationwide consumer credit reporting companies - Equifax, Experian, and Transunion
§ This is for a credit report, NOT a credit score (FICO Score), which you have to buy for approximately $20 from all three of the credit reporting companies.
5. As of March 2, 2011 the FINRA Investor Education Foundation for has made FICO scores (the actual number!) available for FREE to military and spouses. This service is not available for children.
Please contact me at [email protected] if you are interested in getting yours. I just got mine and my husband’s score for free (mine was 3 points higher) and saved $40
Why does this happen? Credit issuers often do not verify the age of the applicant. The information on the application is taken at face value. Credit reporting agencies and the Social Security Administration don't “talk” or share information. An applicant's age becomes official in the eyes of the credit reporting agencies when it is reported on the first credit application.
Just because they ask, doesn’t mean you have to tell. Often your child's school, physician's office, daycare center, or sport's team may request your child's SSN. Always ask why it is needed and how it will be protected. Just because there is a line on a form that asks for it, does not mean that you have to fill it in.
Four Ways to Protect Your Child’s Credit (and a Special Military Benefit for You and Your Spouse!)
1. Don’t carry your child’s SSN card, teach your kids about passwords and PINs, guard online networking sights, change passwords regularly, and teach the importance of not filling in information on websites
2. Your child’s bank account shouldn’t have overdraft protection and it should only be a savings account
3. Watch for mail arriving at your home in your child's name. One of the first red flags is a preapproved credit card offer. This may reveal that your child has an established credit record.
4. Just like you run one on you and your spouse every year (right?), run credit reports on your children for the presence of a credit file. If a credit file is not found, that's good news. An existing credit report on a minor may indicate a problem.
§ The official site to obtain a credit report is www.annualcreditreport.com
§ You can get a credit report from the official site once every 12 months for free which pulls from all three nationwide consumer credit reporting companies - Equifax, Experian, and Transunion
§ This is for a credit report, NOT a credit score (FICO Score), which you have to buy for approximately $20 from all three of the credit reporting companies.
5. As of March 2, 2011 the FINRA Investor Education Foundation for has made FICO scores (the actual number!) available for FREE to military and spouses. This service is not available for children.
Please contact me at [email protected] if you are interested in getting yours. I just got mine and my husband’s score for free (mine was 3 points higher) and saved $40
