Have You Checked Your Child's Credit Report Lately?

[rdowns]

For those not aware, you can obtain a free credit report from 3 credit agencies every year. Get one every 4 months and you have a pretty good free way to monitor your/child's credit report.

https://www.annualcreditreport.com/cra/index.jsp


Link

Parents struggling to keep track of their kids' vaccinations, homework, dance classes and veggie intake have precious little time for other worries, but a serious new threat is demanding their attention: Identity thieves are increasingly targeting children, in some cases stealing their identities even before they are born.

As an investigation by NBC’s Jeff Rossen and TODAY revealed Thursday, criminals routinely use a child’s pristine credit record to their advantage and get away with it for years or decades — even if law enforcement knows exactly where the imposters live. TODAY showed this in dramatic fashion, hunting down two alleged child imposters and capturing their comments on camera.

Rossen’s story on TODAY also features a 9-year-old girl who is in default on utility bills, a teenager with $750,000 in debt, and a 2-year-old with a pile of credit card bills.

"You think this must be a joke, and then you realize, no this is actually incredibly serious," said Allison, the baby's mom, who asked that her last name be withheld. "Never in my wildest dreams had I thought to run a credit check on my son. And what parent would run a credit check on their child who's in diapers, who's crawling?"

Video: NBC’s Jeff Rossen tracks down alleged thieves (on this page)

TODAY's story follows a piece on msnbc.com’s Red Tape Chronicles last month that unearthed research showing child ID theft is more common than previously believed. Hard data is difficult to find, because most cases of child ID theft aren't discovered for years, but a recent check of 40,000 children by identity monitoring company Debix found more than 4,000 cases of tainted identities.

The issue for parents is this: What can I do to protect my child?...

 

[Rodimus Prime]

my though on it is any company that gives credit to someone under the age of 18 should be fined heavily and before to eat every penny of the lost plus pay the family that had it done a fair amount of money for the trouble of dealing with collections.

Reason for it is it should be a HUGE and I repeat HUGE red flag if the person name applying for credit is UNDER the age of 18 and make it red flags.

That is greed on the parts of giving out credit not checking very deep.

 

[appleguy123]

I tried to check mine, and it won't let under 18 year old check their credit.

 

[vincenz]

I have to do this myself. I admit I've never been curious because I don't like debt and do everything to avoid it.

 

[Rodimus Prime]

I try to check mine ever 3-4 months. I cycle between each of the credit services and look for red flags.

All that I currently have on mine are my 2 credit cards and I think one of hte services has a record of Cable internet services I had but zero bad markets everything is good. It is kind of scary the details. Also it is always kind of internsting to see how often credit card companies make inquires on you.

I get about 2-3 a month from AMEX (have a credit card with them) and then 1 a month each from Capital one and Chase neither of which I have any intentions of getting.

Amex is my primary card and my back up a VISA is threw my bank.

 

[smithrh]

I have to do this myself. I admit I've never been curious because I don't like debt and do everything to avoid it.

Credit is a tool. Yes, it needs to be used wisely and with discretion. But, like any other tool, it can help - sometimes immensely - if used correctly.

Do you also avoid hammers, brooms and vacuum cleaners?

Also it is always kind of internsting to see how often credit card companies make inquires on you.

I get about 2-3 a month from AMEX (have a credit card with them) and then 1 a month each from Capital one and Chase neither of which I have any intentions of getting. a VISA is threw my bank.

Most likely AMEX is checking up on you, looking for signs of difficulties elsewhere (e.g., universal default). Don't worry about it, they do the same for just about everyone.

The other card companies are trolling.

If you're sure you don't want unsolicited credit card offers, you can opt out of that. They'll still be able to do a soft pull on you, but once they see the opt out they'll stop.

In many states you can now freeze your credit.