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If you had glanced around here a few weeks ago, you know about my 'lost wallet' episode. Yes, I lost it one fine Sunday morning somewhere between cafe Besalu, Zilla's backyard and the QFC parking lot on 45th. Credit cards, DL, green-card, social security and all. It was a pretty annoying experience, not to mention the thought of someone hijacking my identity. On the plus side, I have a last name that 99% of the people in this country won't feel comfortable pronouncing (let alone taking it on as their new identity) but nontheless, I didn't feel like I could just let it go. So after cancelling all my credit cards and waiting for a couple of days for someone to mail me back the wallet, I gave up and started the recovery process. Getting the DL replaced was first in order and was not a big hassel. The USCIS charged me an arm and a leg for replacing the greencard though, and I had to go there is person for another round of finger-printing. And all my replacement platic cards are now back.

 

One thing I learned is that FirstTech CU sucks big time when it comes to sending you a replacement credit or debit card. They take weeks and in my case took several weeks because someone screwed up and never mailed out my Credit Card. I had to call a couple of times and they we're like "oh, looks like it was never mailed out to you. Let me set it up now and plan on it taking another week to reach you" WTF? In contrast AmEx is superb. They sent the replacement card  overnight and were extremely professional in the way they handled this. I have seen the same level of quality service from AmEx when we found out that Tan's card was compromised. The moral here is that everyone must have an AmEx card (even though it may not be your primary), because it will come to your rescue one fine day. And think twice (or thrice) before deciding to make second class bnaking institutions like FirstTech CU your only one.

 

Anyway, now that most of my life is back on track, I am still waiting for my green card. My passport had expired earlier this year and I cannot travel outside of the country . So much for that trip to Japan and the other one to India to meet with various folks. Oh, well... that freed up some weekends to do weeding around the house which is always a good thing.

 

I am always getting side tracked. The main thing I wanted to write about when I started this was to tell you about the free credit reporting features provided by companies like Experian. They are one of 3 major CRAs (Credit Reporting Agencies) and by federal law, these CRAs are required to provide free credit monitoring and reporting for up to 3 months for anyone who has faced an identity theft scenario.

 

In a case like mine, once you have a police report for the incident (I got one by filing a report and asking for a paper copy from the Seattle Police dept) you just call them and ask to setup credit alerts. If you want monitoring beyond the 3 months, you wll have to pay any one of them and sign-up for a program that suites your needs. There are many other middle man type of deals like the one they advertise on TV (have you see the ad with a social security number written on the side of a big rig driving through the city?). But I won't recommend that if all you are looking for accurate and complete information.

 

Below are the names of the 3 major CRAs and their fraud report hotlines and websites:

 

Equifax (800) 525-6285 www.equifax.com
Experian (888) 397-3742 www.experian.com
TransUnion (800) 680-7289 www.transunion.com

 

If you ever run into any situation like this and want to bounce ideas, feel free to shoot me a message. I'd be glad to share more details.

 

p.s. After signing up with one of these and looking at my credit report, I realized that I still have a whole bunch of credit accounts with several local merchants and they show up as active regardless of the fact that I never use them. Now, if I can find out how to go close them...