Anybody Use LifeLock?

[PSU4Life]

That why it's best to get a tax ID # for your company and not use your SSN.

Makes sense to protect your SSN but then can't someone just use your tax ID # (EIN) and open CCs in your biz name? I never thought about it before until reading this response so hopefully its harder for fraudsters to open fake CC biz accounts.

Does anyone check their business credit reports? Is it the same way as checking your personal credit? Seems like something to get into the habit of doing to help prevent your biz from getting a baller CC for PPC.

 

[johu]

Besides that, what else can someone do to screw you over if they have stolen your info?

Commit crimes, force you to pay bills on charges they made, get you arrested, earn income in your tax ID (which you wouldn't know about, and wouldn't report) which the IRS would come after you for. The list can go on.

 

[Unarmed Gunman]

Makes sense to protect your SSN but then can't someone just use your tax ID # (EIN) and open CCs in your biz name? I never thought about it before until reading this response so hopefully its harder for fraudsters to open fake CC biz accounts.

Does anyone check their business credit reports? Is it the same way as checking your personal credit? Seems like something to get into the habit of doing to help prevent your biz from getting a baller CC for PPC.

No - most business credit cards are tied to you personally, so they need access to your SSN to open a "business" credit card.

However, there is such a thing as a true business CC that is not tied to you personally (only tied to EIN). They are much harder to get, and your business has to be established for a little while with revenue and normally credit accounts with merchants. It is very unlikely that anybody on here (with a few exceptions, of course) actually has true business credit. They also don't use the same credit reporting agencies. There are two big ones, Dun and Bradstreet, and I forget the other one. They have a whole different system for scores (not a FICO), and it's just a different system in general.

 

[robfantasy]

i do.

however, i dont know what they actually do, i opened up a credit card and no one called me or stopped me.

seems like i just get the credit reports sent to me every few months

 

[phil9922]

I have Debix. I live in CT, and 2 years ago a state employee's laptop was stolen that had thousands of CT residents' tax information on it, so the state has been providing it to everyone for free as a safeguard.

It's kind of a pain, but I really do think it'd prevent my identity from being stolen. Every time I have applied for credit since I've had the service, the applications have been put on hold pending verification. Usually within a day or 2, I'll get an automated call from Debix where I have to enter a pin #, and then they make me say a few short phrases to see if my voice matches recordings of my voice that they have on file. Nothing can be opened on my SSN until this verification takes place.

When I say it's a pain, its because there have been a few times where it has caused problems in opening credit accounts for myself. For example, it took me a couple days to open an AT&T account for a new phone. Another that comes to mind is one time I was at Circuit City purchasing a $1500 tv and they said 'If you open a CCity card, you'll save 15%,' so I said sure...thinking I'd be able to save $175. Because of Debix, the application came back as 'customer can't be instantly appoved,' and I was unable to get the savings.