Credit Report Freeze – How and Why?

Some years ago there was a big push for everyone to freeze their credit reports, to prevent others from opening credit in your name. It seemed like a good idea at the time, so I did it.

Unfortunately, once I froze it, I forgot it. I mean, I really forgot all about it. And then came the letter in the mail saying I was turned down for credit because I didn’t have any credit history. I hadn’t unfrozen my credit report, so the company was not able to give me the credit card, for which I had applied. I was hoping to earn a large number of points with that card, so we could use them for airplane tickets to visit our daughter and family in Virginia. It didn’t matter that I had over 40 years of excellent credit history and a high credit score because my credit was frozen and unavailable.

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Should You be Eliminating Credit Cards?

Eliminating credit cards

After my husband’s wallet was stolen, we went through the nightmare of trying to figure out what cards he had in his wallet. We had already been notified by one of the credit card companies about possible unapproved use. I love that the credit card companies today are so quick to spot fraud. The downside of that is that they know more about our spending habits than maybe they should.

The person that took my husband’s wallet used two credit cards. We ended up canceling four credit cards since we weren’t sure which ones he was carrying. The thief spent over $90 filling up his gas tank and apparently a friend’s, using two separate cards, at the same gas station. $10.23 at Jack in the Box bought him some breakfast. The oddest thing to us was the $31.77, for running a background check on someone, that, fortunately, was not us. But I did have to call to make sure it wasn’t on us. He didn’t get much, but still, he wasn’t entitled to anything.

It was time to do something.

I had been thinking it was time to get rid of a few more credit cards before this happened. How about you? Do you have a large number of credit cards, some of which you could eliminate? Today may be a good day to start working on that, before they are stolen, whether physically or over the internet.

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