Security on financial accounts

[iris lilies]

Someone on an MMM thread says all of his financial accounts have multi-week holds to prevent someone from cleaning out an account in a couple of hours. “If the systems work as they should I will be notified of the activity.”

I am now exploring that with our brokers.

Do you all have this feature? Ideally, I envision a system where I can put a 3 day (or 5 day or 7 day) hold on any withdrawals and also be notified via email and telephone when withdrawal requests take place.

Also, we have not taken advantage of freezing our credit accounts as a reporting agencies. Tell me that is stupid. Slap my hand and tell me to get Crackin.

[kib]

I had an identity theft issue a few years back, dozens if not hundreds of credit cards opened in my name. What a mess. It's really pretty easy to freeze things, so slap slap, Iris! It's pretty easy to temporarily unfreeze them too. The only down side is if you need to open a new account of some kind and forget to lift the hold. People get very suspicious when they can't nose around in your business.

What you brought up is Really interesting to me because Sunday, someone broke into my checking account via my debit card and purchased about $150 worth of phone minutes in several transactions. I discovered that this bank is terrible for weekend/holiday customer service. That account is really well funded, and I wound up temporarily transferring the whole balance in a panic because I had no idea if the debits would just go on pouring in and I couldn't freeze the card without talking to a real person, of which there were none til this morning. (I think I'm not liable for unauthorized transactions, but who wants to find out!)

I don't have anything set up with my brokerage because my money moves a lot, but most of it is tied up temporarily and couldn't just be transferred out, assets would have to be sold, but you've got me considering it now.

[SteveinMN]

I'll slap from this side. :) No reason to leave your credit history open for anyone who wants a look-see, especially when companies like Equilax (sic) do such a poor job of it. As kib mentioned, it's not hard to unfreeze the history when you want to. So do it!

I can't speak much to the other issue. I am notified immediately of changes made in accounts but have not established holds on them. Nothing I feel I have to do right now, though I could be convinced.

I will note that debit cards come with fewer consumer protections than credit cards do, which may have been part of what kib faced with the breach of that account.

[kib]

Equilax, helping your money take a dump since 1899.

ETA: Steve's is better. "Equilax, helping your credit rating take a dump since 1899". :+1:

[SteveinMN]

Equilax, helping your money take a dump since 1899.
Or my credit history. But, good one! :cool:

[iris lilies]

I am working through the credit bureau information. There is a thing called fraud alert, where they call you when anyone tries to open a new line of credit on your account. That expires annually. That is different from an account freeze.


I think the last time we opened a line of credit was probably 10 years ago for me to get a second credit card.Between the two of us, have four credit cards and that seems enough. I don’t know that we will ever ask for a line of credit again. We pay cash for houses, house construction, and cars.

In what situations would our credit account be legitimately accessed? I mean, I know that insurance companies etc. look at your credit score, but that’s just looking at the score, right? Not an actual report?

Also, do you all request reports of your credit annually like the security people suggest you do? Do you have to request it from all three credit agencies?

[jp1]

I’ve got freezes on all 3. Did it shortly after the equivalencies breach. Have never tried to unfreeze one so I can’t speak to that. Eventually I will probably need to for some reason.

I get my credit reports every year from all 3. Now that they are all frozen I’d be stunned if anything surprising was on any of them.

[SteveinMN]

We've had our reports frozen for a while now. Occasions I know of for having to lift the freeze: insurance bids, any loan (or loan refinancing), job applications, background checks. Some (maybe all) will not apply to all people.

It's not hard to do -- go to the reporting agency's Web site and jump through a couple of screens of digital hoops. You can suspend it for a period of time or for a specific requestor.

I get the credit reports from all three major agencies about as annually as I get around to it. There are services out there which will streamline that process for you (and tell you "if your password has been used on the Dark Web" yadi yadi) but you'd be spending tens and twenties on that for something you likely can do for yourself in about 10-15 minutes.

[nswef]

I froze ours when there was the breach. Haven't had to unfreeze it for anything, so can't speak to that. Do it, Iris lilies!!!!!

[iris lilies]

I am making progress. Equifax doesnt like Ipads (mobile application they said) so they were clunky. TransUnion seemed much slicker. But
i haven't Frozen any yet because I am nervous amput how to unfreeze.

so, how do you unfreeze? Seems like I heard there was one password, and if you ever lost it, you were SOL. But that may not be the mechanism.

[SteveinMN]

When I've chosen to unfreeze, I simply logged on to the account using my ID and (strong) password and got options to choose from on the screen. A couple of confirmations and I can unfreeze either for a specific entity or a specific date range.

There are provisions in case you forget your ID or password (those magical "Mother's Maiden Name" or "High School Mascot" questions). In fact, I just had to recreate my account on TransUnion because, apparently, I haven't logged in in a year (time flies when you're having fun...). As always, make the answers to the questions bogus, like making "High School Mascot" not "Lions" or whatever it was, but "critters" or even the nonsense "bleen". Just write those down somewhere safe so you have access to the answer(s), because they have to match exactly.

[kib]

Equifax has updated their process, I just had to unfreeze something a few days ago. You no longer need the holy grail password. Go to myequifax.com and log in (or register). On the right side of the screen is a square that says something like "manage a freeze". There's also an option on the left side, under Identity.

[bicyclist]

I have not done one week holds on my accounts. I deal with a well known mutual fund company where I have a rep., check my accounts frequently and trade in and out of accounts infrequently. I have been scammed once on my bank account but the bank security noticed within a few minutes and stopped the payment to the scammer's bank immediately! Lucky me. Now I pay cash on small transactions under $20 among other things. It makes for less excitement. Bicyclist

[iris lilies]

Today I finished this process.

I set up a “fraud alert” with Equifax rather than a freeze. Supposedly with a “fraud alert” any company issuing credit is supposed to check to make sure it is really me who applied. I filed this request with Equifax,and they will convey the same to the other two credit companies.

I got credit reports from all three of them, and open accounts are listed correctly. Oddly, Equifax has an incorrect birthday for me. My eyes glazed over at the documents they want to change anything on my record, so I think I will let it be.That incorrect birthday has worked fine for 40 years.

Next I am going to put a fraud alert type notice on my retirement account. If that works out ok, ?I will talk to DH about doing that for other accounts.