Mike D! asked:


I was in an accident nearly 4 years ago and was taken to the hospital via ambulance. As I understand it, they took my information then and they claim they submitted the bill to my insurance company. I figured everything was all set but have recently been getting collection calls for nearly $1000 and this has shown up on my credit reports (which unfortunately I have only begun to monitor lately). I have been in contact with my insurance company (who tells me I owe nothing in this situation because it should have been covered) and they say they received nothing from the ambulance company until the end of Feb 08! The ambulance company insists they did nothing wrong and refuse to take this mark off my credit report even when they are paid by my insurance.

Do I have any recourse to have this removed from my credit reports? I need help! Thanks!

Frank

CuriousGeorge asked:


A month ago I received a call that there was some suspicious activity on my credit cards. I checked online and it said that I had to pay a bill of more than $2,000. I dealt with it and the fake credit card disappeared. Now another credit card company with which I don’t and never had an account says that I owe $6,000. Who should I contact since this is not the first time. Is there some sort of agency that would monitor all this and deal with all of this?

Any help is appreciated

George

Mathew

John Goldman asked:


Recovering from identity theft is well discussed topic. There have been many steps taken to recover from identity thefts. Also many precautionary steps are also taken to stop identity thefts. After identity theft have also been discussed by many. But in all precautionary steps that are taken no such topic as credit monitoring services have been discussed.

Credit monitoring services prove to be useful in preventing your self from identity theft. They help you in monitoring your credit reports and notice every small change that takes place. Then you can have a rational check on your credit card report to make out fraud if any. There are cases where you come to know about the fraud when there have been many disastrous things already happened. Let us look at some brief information about credit monitoring services.

About credit monitoring services

To keep a clean credit report has become very essential these days. Ensuring our credit report has become difficult because of frauds and identity thefts. So there is important to have a credit monitoring services. Such services are often offered by credit reporting bureaus or banks or some other companies that offer efficient services. Such services include access for your credit report and your credit scores and you always have brief information about updates regarding your credit reports. You also notifications about changes online also.

This facilitates customers because just one click and you get to know your credit score. There have always been differences between people that say that these services are fruitful and some say that they are not cost worthy. But it has been observed that credit monitoring services have provided fool proof protection to customers who have experienced it so far.

Whenever any mishap or accident happens, then first thing that you do is contact credit providers and review your credit report. But most of times it is observed that may people don’t have regular checks of their reports and this causes loss in consistency in updating of changes that occur. Instead of this, if you have credit monitoring services you get daily look at your credit scores and can check for the faults if any.

Areas of use

Usually such systems are costly because they involve some amount of initial cost. But they have very long term profits. As the initial cost is high, some think that they are not cost worthy. But this cost counts when you experience identity theft. Usually normal person panics because he comes to know about the fraud at time when there have been many losses already occurred. But then, reviewing your credit report doesn’t prove to be that useful. So credit monitoring services are always useful. They provide various alarms and alerts wherever necessary.

These alerts help in recognizing the area of fraud and also in crime detection. When you sit for a talk with the credit card company, you should have good knowledge about your credit report so you can present your points very confidently. credit monitoring services not only helps in credit report updating but also in investigation process when identity theft is detected.



Donna

David asked:


Hi Everyone,

My dad has the same exact first, middle, and last name as me. The only thing that differentiates us is that he is Sr. and I’m Jr. He doesn’t have the best of credit and over the years collections that are for him would appear on my credit report. I did dispute those issues and got them taken off mine and we did live at the same address before so I can understand why the credit agencies would go after me as well. I now live at a different address so I hope that helps.

Essentially I’m asking is there a way or someone that I can contact so that the credit bureaus don’t mix up my credit report with my fathers anymore??? Its a hassle having to monitor my report and dispute collections like this randomly. Thanks for any info.

Jorge

PicaSSo of Parta PlnN asked:


Also, if you decided not to accept their new rate and cancelled the card should you be responsible for the Annual Fee, if it were charged 3 days prior to your cancellation? I know that I’ve heard alot about credit card companies doing this but not the larger ones. My Best Buy Reward Mastercard interest rate went from 9.9% to 26.74% (beginning 12/09) and I’m wondering who I can contact to see if it’s legal for them to still charge me an Annual Fee. They gave me the option to accept the terms or call and cancel the card. Of course, I cancelled it, regardless of what it will do to my FICO score. I’m not paying that much for interest on ANY card. This is why I avoid department store cards.

I would like to contact someone who monitors the laws in the State of Florida but do not know where to write to. Any information would be greatly appreciated.
I’ve already contacted them and they refuse to remove the Annual Fee. Also, I received an email stating that they would remove it if I reconsidered closing the card but would have to accept the new interest rate. Swindlers…I tell ya.
WOULDN’T YOU KNOW IT! We just got married and decided to use this card because of it’s interest rate and planned to pay it off within 6 months.
WOULDN’T YOU KNOW IT! We just got married and decided to use this card because of it’s interest rate and planned to pay it off within 6 months.
Sorry about the duplicate update. Yahoo Answers and their error.
TO MY TAKE ON IT ONLY: Yes, but I’ve had the card for over a year. I did talk to them and they WILL waive the Annual Fee if I remain a cardholder and settle for the high interest rate. Still working on another negotiation. Thanks.

Jack

Lara Sawyer asked:


There are many reasons why you should fear identity theft and credit fraud. We receive hundreds of consults each month for credit repair due to issues that have as underlying cause some type of identity theft or credit fraud. It is very important to be protected against these practices if you want to keep your credit sound and your credit score high. A simple credit fraud can destroy the efforts of years on building a clean and stainless credit history. Following are some tips that it is smart to follow if you want to remain on the upper side of the credit rank.

Protect Your Social Security Number

Your social security number is probably the most important identification you have. When forged or used illegally it can cause a lot of harm both to the legit owner and the federal administration or third parties. Thus, it is important to be cautious and avoid providing your social security number when there is no good reason for doing it. As a general rule, you should refrain from providing your social security number to companies that you did not contact you first and, for additional protection, you should run a background check on any company requesting your social security number.

Dispose of Documentation Properly

Any documentation used during applications such as credit reports pulled or filled loan applications need to be archived properly or destroyed if they are not going to be used anymore. This is a significant issue as unscrupulous people make use of this kind of documentation to obtain important personal information for engaging in identity theft. Mail is another source of information that could be used for this purpose and you should also destroy all mails that you do not need to keep. It is important to destroy the documentation or paperwork, shredding is the ideal procedure but in any case, you should dispose of it in such a way that the information cannot be retrieved anymore.

Take Note of All Your Personal And Financial Information and Keep It Safe

Chances are that you have plenty of accounts, store cards, credit cards, and such. If you do, you should take note of all account numbers, credit card numbers, store card IDs, CDs, stocks, bonds, and any other personal and financial information and keep this information printed in a safe place where you can retrieve it easily in case you need to contact the issuers for cancelling the accounts. In case of theft, it is important to cancel credit cards and account or debit cards immediately and have new ones issued to avoid further damages to your credit or finances.

Monitoring Credit And Purchases

Another thing you must do every month is to control your account, credit card and store card’s statements so you can notice immediately when an unidentified or unauthorized purchase was made. Moreover, it is a good idea to hire credit monitoring services to find out if any unauthorized use of your credit was made before it can cause troubles and leave a stain on your credit report



Darrell