Lost license woes

[floriflee]

I had to drive the hubby to the train station this morning. We were a little late getting out of the house otherwise we would have just walked. As soon as I got back I went for a morning run. I'd stuck the license in my back pocket. I usually zip it up when it put things back there, but apparently didn't today. I got back to the apartment only to find just my keys back there. A retrace of my steps (and in some places a double retrace) didn't turn up anything. I was so bummed. Luckily, the MVA wasn't busy this afternoon. I was in and out of there with a new license in about 20 minutes (a record!).

So now my question is.... do I have to report my lost license to any agencies (i.e., credit agencies or anything)? I don't want to risk identity theft.

 

[yg17]

If your social security number was on your old license, then yes, you should worry.

 

[floriflee]

No, it wasn't on there, which is why I wondered. I don't think the state of MD puts them on there by default (thank goodness)--at least not the new ones.

 

[Jschultz]

why would anyone put their social on there anyways? That seems like you're asking for trouble, no?

 

[jadekitty24]

I don't know of any state putting a SSN on licenses. At least they don't here in CT. However I would call a credit agency and ask just to be safe. I don't know how easy it is to steal someones identity from a license # and date of birth alone.

 

[saabmp3]

Many states, up until 5 or so years ago used your SS as your license #. In MA you could opt out of this, now it's basically a forgotten procedure.

Ben

 

[joker2]

why would anyone put their social on there anyways? That seems like you're asking for trouble, no?

I don't know of any state putting a SSN on licenses. At least they don't here in CT.

States are moving away from that now, but it used to be very common, and was on my last 5 licenses. (Original license, moved, moved again, CDL, moved again, newest one was a name change where I got a state-issued Driver's license number.)

Even schools would use your SSN as student IDs, or make your ID number they issued your e-mail address, so nothing (like posted test scores on an instructor's door by student number) was really 'anonymous' because everyone knew your student number from e-mailing back and forth with you and could look it up on the school's website. (Both schools I attended have moved away from these practices.)

 

[floriflee]

Luckily, my school didn't use SSNs for emails--they were used for Student IDs, though. I think they've since changed that practice. I'm hoping that nothing will come of the lost license, but then I'm afraid of what could be found out about me with my name, address, and birth date were they to do any type of search in a large database or something (LexisNexis comes to mind). If it was found by someone, I'm hoping against hope that they won't be malicious. All these steps of trying to keep my identity protected and something stupid like this happens. *sigh* Oh, well....

In any case, I did a little internet searching on it and the FTC has some recommendations to protect yourself against identity fraud:

http://www.consumer.gov/idtheft/

There is also this site:

http://www.privacyrights.org/fs/fs17a.htm

I called Experian, and they will notify the other two credit agencies when they put a fraud alert on your account. Kind of nice since it saves you the hassle of having to call all three....

Edit: That leads me to another question. Does anyone use/have experience with the credit monitoring services that so many places offer? Experian tried to sell me one when I called them, but I thought I'd better check it out first. Anyone have any input?

 

[jadekitty24]

Edit: That leads me to another question. Does anyone use/have experience with the credit monitoring services that so many places offer? Experian tried to sell me one when I called them, but I thought I'd better check it out first. Anyone have any input?

My boyfriend used one company, I wish I could remember the name, but anyway they charged his account $10 per month to "monitor" his credit, meanwhile someone made unauthorized charges on his account and they didn't even catch it. This was a charge made in a DIFFERENT COUNTRY! If that doesn't raise a red flag! Another benefit of this service was supposed to be e-mail notifications of every payment due date on all his accounts. We never received any. In a nutshell, in my experience, a complete rip-off. The service did absolutely nothing for us.

 

[joker2]

I use Experian's service, and they run $10 off specials every 3-6 months on the full 3-credit bureau report and scores, something like $77/year, but you can pull an Experian report once a month for "free", and alerts you by e-mail for new inquiries, potentially negative information, public records, new accounts and address changes.

I will say though, my student loan consolidation hasn't shown up yet completely, and being from the same company it wasn't flagged as a "new account". Having just pulled a 3 agency report, looks like I'll need to put in some minor changes at the other two.