LEE'S SUMMIT, Mo. -- Credit experts said there is a silver lining to the Equifax data breach. After the credit bureau announced the hack, millions of Americans checked their credit score. And in the process, some people discovered issues totally unrelated to Equifax.
Bo Thomas at the Credit Law Center in Lee’s Summit said his office hasn’t received many calls about Equifax, but clients are looking for help solving problems they didn’t know existed until they checked their score after the Equifax breach.
“It's helping us educate more consumers on reviewing their credit report and looking at that before they’re in the middle of a financial transaction,” Thomas explained.
He said it doesn’t take much for criminals to hurt your credit, but it can take months for you to restore it. And in the meantime, a bad credit score can make it harder for you to get a good interest rate on a loan or mortgage.
Thomas advised you treat your credit score like your health.
“It's kind of forcing people to get their yearly check-up,” he said. “They're going to the doctor for a physical and finding out, ‘I need to address some things here and get myself in better shape.’ So it has helped in that aspect.”
Thomas warns just because you haven’t seen anything out of the ordinary pop up on your credit, doesn’t mean you’re in the clear. He said once your information is out there, criminals can choose to use it at any time.
To protect yourself, Thomas recommends hiring a monitoring service to keep tabs on your accounts.
If you feel you’re at risk, you can put a fraud alert on your accounts for free.
Bigger steps, that do cost money, include locking or freezing your credit with the three credit bureaus, Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. Those options make it nearly impossible for anyone to open new accounts without your permission.
“Some things that seem really insignificant could be a sign of bigger things to come,” Thomas said. “The earlier you see that in the game, the better you can play the game, which is to defend yourself.”
Thomas’ last piece of advice is to look at the details in your credit card statements, don’t just glance at the balance and assume all the transactions are legitimate.
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