<p>The horrible gist of the fact is that we were burglarized last night around 1:15AM. I was (very unusually) still awake in ed last night (H was asleep) when I heard someone come through the back patio door downstairs. Skipping over a bunch of details, the end result is H’s wallet and watch were the only things stolen. We think my hearing him, waking up H, who yelled at him and scaring him back out the back door, kept him from being in the house any longer than 30-45 seconds. He passed over my purse, and iPhone, and several laptop computers - probably because he didn’t have enough time to see them and grab them.</p>
<p>Police were here for over two hours. While they were here, I was on the phone with the credit card company and credit union canceling our credit/debit cards. However, they did get H’s wallet, which has his driver’s license in it, along with a few other identifying pieces of information - Costco card, insurance card, AAA card, etc. One of the police officers here have-heartedly mentioned something about calling Experian and letting them know what had happened, that they might be able to do something to keep someone from opening credit cards in H’s name. I’m sure there are some steps we need to take, but I’m not sure what. A neighbor suggested LifeLock, but then someone else said they used LifeLock and someone within LifeLock stole their information and committed identity fraud theft, anyway. </p>
<p>Also, when I called our credit union/Visa number, they said it would take 7-10 business days to get a new credit card! I couldn’t believe it. When H called his corporate credit card company, they said they would overnight a new credit card to him. </p>
<p>Any helpful tips on what other steps we need to take at this point?</p>
<p>Just sending you hugs - that’s so scary! I’m so glad you both are okay. I do think chatting with one of the credit monitoring companies makes sense. When it happened to me, I had to cancel credit cards but fortunately my driver’s license wasn’t in the wallet. I’ll be interested to see what others say.</p>
<p>No advice, just so sorry that happened. How scary! If you cancel and have reissued everything from the wallet, that’s a good start. I would contact all 3 of the credit reporting agencies and have them put a fraud alert on your accounts or whatever they call it. Also, make sure if any account numbers and passwords were written and kept in the wallet that those accounts are changed too. It’s too late for this event but we keep a photocopy of every item in each of our wallets, just for quick canceling if needed. My wallet was stolen years ago so I’ve kept a record of things ever since.</p>
<p>In our state, you need to get a police report to get a new driver’s license reissued right away. D2’s wallet was stolen a year ago while doing xmas shopping. We cancelled all of her credit cards. Without your H’s social number it would be hard for anyone to get new credit, that’s why you shouldn’t carry your SS card in your wallet. In D2’s case, her wallet was returned without the cash.</p>
<p>So when I call them, is there something in particular I’m requesting of them? Or will they know what they need to do?</p>
<p>About a month ago, I had been thinking that it had been a long time (over ten years) since I’d last photocopied everything in my wallet in the case of loss or theft, and that it was high time I do it again - then I had some health issues that took over my life, and I never got around to it. But I keep a lot more things in my wallet than H does. </p>
<p>Neither one of us keeps any PIN numbers written anywhere near our wallets. They’re all on a document only accessible from my computer. In fact, when I was talking to the lady at Visa last night, she asked me that question, and I told her, “Heck, I don’t even know my credit card PIN number.”</p>
<p>I’m kind of surprised about the 7-10 days. We had a few times where our CC number has been stolen and they always overnight a new card… I’d call your health card insurance company too. There maybe someway for someone to use it. </p>
<p>If you had any automatic payments linked to the stolen credit card, remember to update with the new number when you get it. (Not related to identity theft, but just something to save you trouble with late payment fees when your old number stops working)</p>
<p>@LVKris - yes, I just went through this less than three months ago when our old credit cards expired and we got new ones with a new expiration date. Going to be a pain! The easiest way I find to do it is, looking back over one quarter’s worth of statements and looking for those recurring charges (some are only quarterly, like OnStar), then contacting those places. </p>
<p>I will be curious to see what happens with our debit card, though. The first seven digits of it are random, but the last nine digits have always been H’s SSN. I wonder if we’ll get a new card with just the first seven digits changed, but the last nine remaining his SSN. </p>
<p>@MichiganGeorgia - hadn’t thought of that. Will get in touch with them, too, and see if they wish to issue new ID cards. And yes, we, too, were surprised with the length of time. When I was talking to them, I was able to give them the police report number, so you’d think they’d believe us when we say we were burglarized, as opposed to just being careless and leaving it somewhere for someone to take. As I said, his corporate credit card is being overnighted to him so I know it can be done. I’d even be willing to pay extra to have it done. I’m concerned (although I haven’t looked yet) over how many recurring charges might come due in the 7-10 business days it takes to get the new number to us. </p>
<p>You can ask the credit agencies to flag your Credit. You will give them a password. If anyone tries to open any new credit at all they cannot do so without your password.</p>
<p>Sorry for your scare. Sorry for your trouble.</p>
<p>I just checked three months worth of credit card statements, and I only have six vendors that have my credit card information stored on file and bill automatically. I created a document with their names, phone numbers, last payment date, and payment amount. Once I get the new card, it should be relatively easy to go down the list and contact each one. Some, I think I can actually do online. </p>
<p>First of all, I’m so sorry to hear that it happened to you! May the crook rot in jail someday. Awhile back, someone stole our mail - with Mr B’s paystub in it which in those good old days had his SSN printed on it along with our address. We immediately notified the post office and the local police to get a report (you already have it) and put a freeze on our credit report (the unexpected benefit was a huge drop in junk mail cc offer solicitations!). Mr B complained to the HR as well, and they switched to printing employee numbers on the stubs (and then a couple of years later went electronic). We kept monitoring our credit reports periodically, too. What a hassle…</p>
<p>As BB mentioned above, you can request that your credit be ‘frozen’ with each of the three agencies. (I believe the correct term is a security freeze.) The process varies by state. I think we paid $12 to each of the three agencies, times two as we froze credit in both spouses’ names. </p>
<p>The agency will supply you with a password that you can use to unlock the security freeze, in case you need access to new credit (car lease, HELOC, etc). The only downside I have experienced is the inability to open a store credit card, but many would argue that is a benefit of the freeze!</p>
<p>OK… so the point of contacting the three agencies is to put a security freeze on our names? That makes sense, and is worth the $12 per agency/per person to offer some peace of mind. </p>
<p>Funny, we haven’t opened a new credit card in many years, although today when we were at Costco and H was getting his member card replaced, he saw the application for their American Express and took one with him! He usually doesn’t look at that kind of stuff, but it grabbed his attention today. Costco is the one place we shop/buy gas, that we can’t use our Visa credit card at to earn points - we have to use our Visa debit card and don’t get any kind of rewards for that. So an American Express through them, just to use at Costco, might be worth it. I guess if he’s going to do it, he needs to do it before we get the credit freeze - or, when you use a password to unlock the security freeze, don’t you have to pay the $12 again to re-freeze it again?</p>
<p>@teriwtt—yes, you need to pay the $12 to unfreeze and then $12 again to refreeze, but I think other posters might have been suggesting to just contact the agencies to give them a heads up. I am suggesting the security freeze as that leaves nothing to chance.</p>
<p>There is a state pull-down menu at the bottom of this page. The $12 I quoted was for CT but when I looked into this for relatives in NY, I believe the service was free. (Info several years out of date, so confirm using the link below.)</p>
<p>Not fully trusting the freeze, I decided to challenge it by attempting to open a credit card. My telephone application was referred for further consideration and a letter followed explaining that they could not verify my credit history. I doubt anyone else questions this sort of thing, but I wanted to be sure.</p>
<p>My next concern is my teenage boys. They need to establish credit, so I am tempted to have the college-bound one apply for a charge card now and then freeze the credit. Overkill perhaps….</p>
<p>I love my Costco AmEx. It is free, it earns me this huge Costco check based on all spending, and then the executive membership earns me another check based on Costco spending. I believe Costco AmEx offers some sort of tiered program now where gas purchases earn points at one level, dining at another, etc whereas I have an older card that pays approximately 1.5% of all purchases. Costco issues a check once a year that we use to pay for our Costco shopping. Balance is returned in cash.</p>