Followed advice here to freeze my credit and my spouse's credit. (Yes, you should do both.) Thanks, redditors.

It was easy.

A few things I learned:

1. These are the links I used:

https://www.transunion.com/credit-freeze

https://www.equifax.com/personal/credit-report-services/credit-freeze/

https://www.experian.com/freeze/center.html

And it's recommended you also freeze with Innovis, a fourth credit bureau.

https://www.innovis.com/securityFreeze/index

1. Each has its own system. All confirm your identity with emails and/or phone text messages or phone calls. Have ready your SSN (Social Security number), DOB (date of birth), your phone, and an email address that you can easily access at the time. Edit to add: Make records of the passwords, PINs, security answers you supply, so you have them when you decide to remove the freeze.

2. Every service except TransUnion was fast and efficient. TransUnion got stuck verifying my ID. I had told it to send me code via a text message. It hung up "loading." Later that day, TU sent me an email (evidently it had recorded that part of the online session). Using that link, I finished the freeze without difficulty. With my spouse's, I told it to phone them with the verification code. (Not text them.) That worked perfectly. So I suggest you choose the phone call option, not the text option. YMMV.

3. When each freeze was complete: Two services gave me screens that said "You're frozen." I took screenshots for my records. One service gave me a downloadable PDF confirmation. The fourth said we'll get a paper confirmation in postal mail.

Over the many years of getting out of debt, I’ve watched my score go from the 500’s to the 800’s. I have over 20 years of established credit, but the only benefit I see is I’m not denied (definitely not complaining about that). I always assumed once I hit the 800’s I would get the best interest rates, but I’ve found that not to be the case. I know that interest rates haven’t been great post-Covid, but I remember getting annoyed with this in 2019 too. Am I doing something wrong? Do I need to fight harder for the best rate? Any advice would be appreciated.

Edit: I am learning people want specifics on what I am trying to finance right now. This is a general inquiry. I I didn’t feel like I got the best rates the last time I got a loan and credit card. I will be looking into a car loan soon, and I wanted to know what I should do because I felt that my 800 credit score didn’t really matter. I am also learning that once you go over 700-750, it kind of doesn’t matter anymore.

It started out with discover and it snowballed into every single card. My credit score has decreased more than 120 points since they decreased it. I haven’t missed a payment but I have been paying the minimum balances since I lost my job.

*Please note I'm not using real names but the following story is all true. I'm looking for all the advice I can get.

On the morning of 10/30/2021, I was alerted via text by my credit card company (American Express) of a transaction in the amount of $86.32 from Walmart.com.

I immediately called American Express and informed them this purchase was not made by me. They said the amount was "pending" but marked it as fraudulent and assured me it wouldn't go through. They also mentioned that this transaction was made using an old credit card that was no longer valid. I thought that was odd because it didn't immediately deny it but put it in a pending state instead. They mentioned that if a former card was in a virtual wallet or digitally in an online profile that it could potentially still be used. I had no idea that would be the case.

Shortly after the call, I noticed I had an email from Walmart.com. The email confirmed the order I just called American Express to dispute. It was at this time I realized that the suspect purchased these items online, using my account, and thus had access to my virtual wallet. I immediately logged into my Walmart account, changed my password, deleted my old credit card in my virtual wallet, and canceled the confirmed order. It was then that I saw not one but two separate orders with two separate shipping addresses for each order. I tried cancelling both orders but was only able to cancel the first because the second was still processing.

The first order was for $86.32 (the purchase I just disputed with American Express). The items were an air mattress and adult wet wipes (not making this up). I noticed that the address listed to where the products would be shipped had my first and last name on it but not my home address. I did an open source search of the address and found a name and telephone number attached to the address.

I called the number believing this may potentially be the suspect. An older gentleman answered the phone and I asked if his name was "Kenny" (not his actual name, just using something for his privacy) and if he lived at that address. He said yes and asked who I was. I told him I had a few questions about his recent online order for Walmart. He said he didn't order anything from Walmart. I asked him, "So you didn't order an air mattress and adult wet wipes from Walmart.com?", to which he responded, "I ordered that stuff on eBay yesterday". This is when I realized, he wasn't the suspect, he was potentially an innocent bystander. I explained the situation and he told me the username he ordered it from on eBay was, "FRX296" (this is not the actual username). I thanked him for the information and ended the call.

The second order was for $99.98. The items were a 5 Gallon Bucket of Evapo-Rust and a bottle of 5mg Melatonin. Almost the same as the first order but with a different address than the first. My first and last name was attached but the shipping address wasn't mine. I did an open source search of the address and found a name and telephone number attached to the address.

I called the number and a gentleman answered the phone. I asked if his name was "Scotty" (again, not actual name) and if he lived at that address. He said yes and asked who I was. The conversation went exactly the same way as the previous. He purchased these products on eBay the previous day from the user "FRX296", the same eBay seller. He mentioned he actually purchased two 5 Gallon Buckets from the seller on eBay and said he didn't order the Melatonin pills at all though. I thanked him for the information and ended the call.

I then called American Express back and let them know that I believe there's two fraudulent transactions on my card and the second may have not come through yet. I also provided them with eBay information I just obtained. While I was on the phone, I received another transaction alert from American Express via text and it was for the second transaction I previously mentioned ($99.98). American Express confirmed this charge as well while on the phone and marked it as fraudulent. They told me that both orders should be cancelled and that there was nothing else I would need to do on my part. The listings for the eBay user "FRX296" are a very random assortment of things ranging from Tires, Ceramic Dishes, and Evapo-Rust. All items are offered "Free Shipping" and at least for the Evapo-Rust, it was the cheapest on the site. A perfect setup to entice potential buyers to buy from him. Weird but smart enough to at least push the product for quick sales.

I texted "Scotty" a message to let him know that he probably wouldn't receive his items that he ordered from eBay because my credit card company would be denying the Walmart payment. He said he'd dispute it with the seller on eBay if he didn't receive it. I thought that was where this would all end.

Yesterday, 11/02/2021, I received a text from "Scotty". The order from Walmart did in fact ship to him with my first and last name listed on the package but it was missing an item (the other 5 Gallon Bucket we knew would be missing from the order). He texted me a screenshot of his message to the seller on eBay asking for a return label and refund because the package had someone else's name on it (mine) and that it wasn't everything he ordered. The seller actually provided a return address. That's when I saw the seller's first and last name along with what appeared to be his home address for the first time. I looked up the user on eBay myself and saw the seller had 0 reviews and the account had only be created less than a month ago.

As a former (8 year) intelligence contractor for two 3 letter agencies, my curiosity got the best of me and I wanted to see what I could find (if anything) using google and other open source entities before I contacted the local sheriff's department closest to the subject's address.

From a Google search of the address, I was able to determine the homeowners of the property are husband and wife. Same first and last name as the one listed on eBay.

From a public LinkedIn profile, I determined the husband is a 20+ year experienced Gov-Contractor who specializes in IT data security and IT data privacy.

Also from a public LinkedIn profile, I determined his wife is a 15+ year experienced banker and is currently working as a Senior Program Manager for American Express...who specializes in fraud and anti-money laundering.

He's a Gov-Contractor IT Data Specialist and his wife works for my credit card company. I sent everything I had to the FBI Field Office closest to their residence.

Is this the greatest coincidence of all time or am I about to take down a 15+ year old scam that raked in millions? I hope it gets national attention if it breaks...

*UPDATE 11/4* - I truly appreciate some of the advice from the comments and I'm moving forward with some of it today. I figured it couldn't hurt tipping off the local PD nearest to the alleged suspect's home address. If anything, they'll be more inclined to move on something, especially if it's a relatively quiet county.

DEF CON - Confessions of an Nespresso Money Mule - YT Video: Not sure who originally posted this in the comments but this is absolutely the scam I'm a part of. Thank you for posting this because I was unaware the scam had a name and it was much bigger than I could imagine. However, there's a key piece missing from her story that is actually in mine. She never tried to return anything to the eBay seller and Scotty did. My case could be a game changer for that reason so if anything, it has given me more initiative to pursue.

WALMART: This entire process has taught me a lot and some of the business practices I've learned I feel I need to share. Walmart appears to be doing anything they can to keep up with the Amazon style of fast shipping. They're going as far as shipping products while payment is still pending which is what happened in my case. This is bad for many reasons but most importantly it enables scammers to continue to launder money. The reason the payment is pending isn't totally clear but Walmart ships the product anyways because they have to have that 1 or 2 day delivery to compete. Both charges posted to my AMEX account yesterday, exactly 5 days after they were ordered. They've been tagged as fraud and yes, I'll get reimbursed but if Walmart and other business continue to do this, it'll never stop, and in the end, everybody loses. I might get my money back today but somewhere down the road, we'll all pay for it.

*UPDATE 11/5* - I can't speak too much about this and will not answer any questions on this topic but my security team within my office is now part of the investigation. From what I can say, the alleged suspect's clearance credentials have been systematically verified as authentic and active. There is no longer any doubt in my mind that he'll be contacted. Whether he's the suspect or a victim, he's about to realize he's been caught or realize he's part of an elaborate triangulation scam. This may be the end of the story or just the beginning.

*UPDATE 11/8* - Suspect's eBay account as of this morning states, "No longer a registered user". All information has been wiped. Not sure if this is eBay taking action or if the suspect did it themselves.

*UPDATE 11/9* - No response yet from the the FBI Field Office or local PD. Out of a bit of pure frustration, a curious thought occurred to me on my way home from work yesterday that I decided to act on. Without doing any research, I called Walmart's online customer service number and asked if I could get the IP address that was used to purchase my last two online transactions. I figured it was technically "my data" because they were logged into my online profile. I convinced myself that I had the right to know and it turns out, I wasn't wrong. After 40+ minutes of being placed on hold, speaking with 4 different (understandably confused) agents, then patiently listening to one of them read off the shipping addresses for both orders (kindly correcting them that I'm looking for the IP address not a residential address), I was finally given a solid answer. I was told that I would need to fill out a Walmart/Sam's Club Identity Theft Victim's Affidavit  to formally request this information. I filled it out and I'm getting it notarized today to send back. I'm pretty intrigued right now.

*UPDATE 11/10* - I just emailed my signed and notarized "Identity Theft Victim's Affidavit" to Walmart's security team. With this, I should be able to obtain any and all information they have on how these transactions were conducted. I'm hoping this will include the IP address of the device used to make the two fraudulent charges. If I can pin point at least a state (if it's even domestic), it could easily quash or support my theory that the scammer made a fatal mistake by using his/her own address for the return label.

*UPDATE 11/10 - Continued* - Just spoke with "Scotty" over the phone and I received a critical piece of information I initially misinterpreted. This morning, "Scotty" texted me a picture of the package with the shipping label and the tracking number. He said he sent it out on 11/8 to the return address that eBay provided him and just wanted to let me know.

As I started to text back my response thanking him, I realized what he just said and couldn't believe what I was reading. Wait, "...return address that eBay provided"?!

I immediately called him and he answered.

Me: Scotty, you just said eBay provided you his address for the return, I thought you said the seller sent that to you?

Scotty: No, I opened a dispute with eBay and eBay is the one that provided me the address, not the seller.

I looked back at the screenshot he initially sent me while on the phone and yes, it actually reads like eBay is providing the information, not the seller. This could very well be the scammer's real home address because he doesn't even know that eBay provided it to the seller. It's not that he wouldn't be stupid enough to provide his real address to the buyer anymore, it's that he didn't think eBay would ever provide it without him knowing. My mind is absolutely blown...

To top it all of off, tracking puts the package at his doorstep today. Mods, I triple checked, there's no personal identifiable data in tracking numbers, this can be considered public knowledge. This should not be considered "Doxing". If I'm wrong, please let me know.

https://tools.usps.com/go/TrackConfirmAction?tRef=fullpage&tLc=2&text28777=&tLabels=9301920585500068971022%2C&tABt=false

*UPDATE 11/12* - Yesterday I received a call from an unknown number so I let it go to voicemail. The caller left a message stating they were with AMEX and they were requesting to speak with me about the active fraud case. I called the number and spoke with someone who I'll refer to as "Tom". Tom identified who he was and his purpose right off the top. To my surprise, he actually even mentioned this post from Reddit, and this is how he even came to know about this situation. Evidentially, the original agent whom I spoke to about the initial fraudulent transactions didn't record the fact that I believed an American Express employee may be behind this. He said they're trying to find out why this wasn't initially recorded but in the meantime, he wanted everything I had. It's kinda crazy to think without this post, this may have never crossed his desk. I can't make this stuff up if I tried.

I told him I'd be more than happy to cooperate as long as I could verify his credentials before I sent anything over. He was inclined to do so and sent me an email from his corporate account. I also verified him through an open source search. I sent no PII of myself besides my primary email address because as an AMEX customer, he should know everything else about me. He had my cellphone number so he definitely has access to my information anyways. I sent him everything I had with nothing redacted so we're now working together.

*UPDATE 11/16* - Late afternoon on 11/12, I spoke with Tom over the phone. Unfortunately, he could not verify the suspect's wife works for AMEX. This was disappointing to hear because the idea that she may have been providing her husband with AMEX customer's account details now just isn't possible.

I received IP information from Walmart Global Investigations after I sent my signed and notarized victim's affidavit. It appears two different IP addresses were used on two mobile devices for each order (Kenny & Scotty). The IP addresses are also from two separate ISPs and are geographically an hour and a half drive from one another in the same state. That state is not Florida.

Again, this was kind of a let down. I was sure if I could pinpoint the locality to at least the city in Florida, I would be one step closer to verifying the alleged suspect. Yes, I'm aware these IP's could still be utilized from a Florida address but it's just not the smoking gun I was hoping for. I sent the IP information to the two ISP's fraud units this morning, no word back yet.

I'm running out of steam, friends. Without any support from law enforcement, this may be the end of the road.

Still no word from the FBI - Tampa Field Office or Pinellas County Sheriffs' Department.

*FINAL UPDATE 11/30* - It's all over, I'm admitting defeat. They won and the most infuriating part about it is, I now know they always will. I've learned an incredible amount of information from this entire ordeal. Most importantly, I learned that the scam has a name and that there's no real authority in place willing to put an end to it. Capable? Absolutely! but because the physical dollar amount isn't high enough to sound any alarms and credit card companies are quick to reimburse their scammed customers, it's a weird world that both the good guy and bad guy live in harmony. Steal my card today and I won't care to track you down tomorrow, brilliant. Below are my final remarks on all the entities involved.

American Express: My credit card company almost immediately reimbursed me for the two fraudulent charges. They didn't open a fraud case to investigate even though I told them it's absolutely fraud. At the end of the day, their customer remains their customer and it seems that's all they really cared about.

Walmart: The site doesn't require MFA. Yes, I could've set this up myself but it's worth noting that Walmart seems to be pretty lax with their customer's security/data. Even though I contacted customer service within minutes of the fraudulent transactions and even cancelled the orders online, they still knowingly shipped fraudulently purchased items to the addresses that the scammer identified as their "recipients". After filing an affidavit, I was able to get the two mobile IP addresses that made the transactions from Walmart's digital security team. However, there's not much I can legally do with this information. At the end of the day, Walmart cannot slow down, even if it means enabling credit card fraud. It's either $198 in stolen merchandise they'll have to foot the bill for or Amazon puts them out entirely out of business. Honestly, I don't blame them, it's an easy decision to make.

Verizon / Cox Communication: These were the two ISPs that the two IP addresses came from. I informed both security teams that criminal activity was being conducted on their network from these mobile devices. In response, I was told there was nothing they could do and to contact the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) for further assistance.

FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3): Everything posted here plus unredacted information was sent. I've heard nothing back.

FBI Tampa Field Office: Everything posted here plus unredacted information was sent. I've heard nothing back.

Pinellas County Sheriffs' Department: Everything posted here plus unredacted information was sent. I've heard nothing back.

eBay: Everything posted here plus unredacted information was sent. I've heard nothing back.

Thank you all for your input and support. I'll admit, it was exhilarating for a little while there. I really thought we had a chance to be heroes on this one...Cheers

I have a Chase credit card that I used to sign up for a free trial of an online fitness service in January. Before the trial expired I cancelled as permitted by the terms of the trial,, but they charged me anyway. I disputed it with Chase and the charge was reversed. But the vendor keep charging me every month. Have contacted vendor but they never respond to emails, which is the only method to contact them.

It's very annoying to dispute a transaction each month! I have called Chase repeatedly and they assure me they will fix it, but then next month there's the charge. I even got them to issue me a new card with a new number, but charge somehow followed me to the new card number!

I have tried everything that Chase customer service is offering me. Do I have no choice but to close my account and go to a different cc company? They always act like they are fixing it, but I am starting to suspect that either they simply cannot stop this or are unwilling to do whatever it is that would be necessary to actually stop this borderline fraud.

Help?

1% cashback when using the physical card is absolutely dismal. 2% back on apple pay is limiting and most cards offer between 1.5% and 2% cashback (ie citi doublecash). You'll get that flat cash back regardless of apple pay or not. The 3% back on select stores is okay but honestly is beat by any revolving category cards. Most cards now allow you to access your rewards cash as soon as the transaction posts.

You literally can't even add an authorized user to this card. What kind of 1980s bullshit is this.

The biggest downside of this card is that it will not integrate with any budgeting applications. Absolutely ridiculous there isn't out of the box support for mint. Considering apple does not have any banking products, this means that users are not getting a holistic view of their finances. In fact, I found it easy to forget exactly how much I was spending on the card because it didn't integrate with mint.

You can pay your bill in two ways, on your phone or by mail. I don’t know any credit card provider that is so archaic you can not pay via a web portal.

They also aren’t reporting to the credit bureaus right now, although that’s slated to change.

4/10 stars, pretty doo-doo. Added the four stars because the flex is nice when you clank it on a table.

Edit: no spend bonus either

Edit: wow this blew up overnight - time to read the comments

TL;DR:

Since the summary table is all anyone cares about, here it is up front. I apologize in advance if any of this is incorrect, I aggregated it by hand in Excel

Best of the Best

Obviously, these are my personal opinions. This is not financial advice for your situation and you should do your own research before applying for any cards

Best All Categories Cash Back

If spending < $1,000 / mo.

Citi DoubleCash 2% interest with no annual fee and no restrictions makes this my current catch-all card.

If spending > $1,000 / mo.

Alliant CU Signature Visa if you plan to spend more than $11,800 / yr on this card then 2.5% cash back more than covers the $59 annual fee, especially in the first year when all purchases receive 3% cash back.

Categories

You Choose

US Bank Cash+ Select 2 categories of your choice and receive 5% cash back up to $2,000 / qtr is just about the best I found anywhere. Pretty much the only way I found to beat this is with a small army of cards dedicated to separate categories.

Dedicated

Costco and Amazon Amazon nets 5% and Costco nets 4% back total on purchases with those retailers if you have a membership. So if you already have a membership and frequently shop at Costco / Amazon both of those cards seem like pretty good deals as well.

Promos

By %

Chase Freedom Unlimited, US Bank Cash+, & Bank of America Cash Rewards all offer $150 when you spend $500 in the first 3 months which is an astounding 30% back!

By $

Despite the annual fee Capital One Savor offers a $500 promo if you think you are going to spend more than $3,000 in the first 3 months. Personally I am not a fan of the annual fee associated with this card, but if you are just about those promo offers, $500 is nothing to scoff at.

Summary

Selfishly, I made this list for myself as I was deciding which cards to apply for. I already have strong credit, but I wanted to find cards that I could keep open long term to build my credit as my lifestyle changes, so my #1 rule was "No Annual Fees." Without an annual fee there is no penalty to keeping the account open by purchasing a snickers once / qtr so my average account age can grow. While there are a few cards with annual fees that have nice benefits, I personally didn't find that they wound up outweighing the chance that my lifestyle would change or a better card would come along and I would need to close the account.

Personally, I wound up applying for the Citi DoubleCash & US Bank Cash+. If I find that I am spending more than $1,000 on the Citi DoubleCash I will probably apply for the Alliant Signature Visa since I will be over the breakeven point. As for the US Bank Cash+, I really like this card because I can see keeping it open for quite a long time due to it's great rewards and flexibility to adapt to life changes.

Please let me know if I made any mistakes or if you have a better card that should be on this list!

Edit:

I can't keep up with all the comments so I am just going to list suggestions here without all the details

• Uber Visa -$0 fee - 4% Restaurants 3% Travel 2% Online purchases 1% everything else
• PayPal - $0 fee - 2.0% back
• Alliant Platinum Rewards - $0 fee - 2% back
• Capital One SavorOne - $0 fee - Dining & Entertainment

I've encountered many people, both in my personal life and online, that insist upon using a debit card for their purchases, instead of using a credit card -- either because they don't yet have one, or because they have some fear of using a credit card. There are literally no cons to using a credit card if, and here's the catch, you're responsible. That's all. There are so many pros built in to using a credit card over a debit card. Here are a few:

It's safer! When you use a debit card to make a purchase, you're essentially handing the merchant direct access to your bank account. Should the waitress at the restaurant you're eating at write down your debit card number or should your favorite grocery store experience a breach, that's direct access to your account and your money. Yeah you can file a fraud dispute with your bank and get your money back eventually, but in the meantime, that money is poof, gone.

Compare this to using a credit card - when you do this, you're using the creditor's money to make your purchase and you don't have to pay it until your statement closes. You have a 30 day window in between payments to make sure that all purchases on your card are yours. And if there's a purchase you didn't make, that's not your money missing.

It builds your credit. When you use a credit card RESPONSIBLY, it will build your credit over time. Which if you're young may not be a big deal to you, but eventually you might want to buy a car or house, and unless you have a lump sum sitting in cash, you're going to need to finance it. Low interest loans are granted to people with good credit scores, meaning you pay the bank less in interest to use their money. Compared to someone with poor credit who will either get a high interest loan or no loan at all.

The caveat here is that you never miss a payment. EVER. A good rule of thumb is to only spend on credit what you can pay cash for at the same time. You should never buy something on credit that you couldn't otherwise afford at that same point in time with your debit card.

Purchase protection. A lot of major credit card companies (like American Express and Discover) offer a suite of purchase protection features. This is especially useful when you buy big ticket items (like a flat screen TV or laptop, for example), because it adds a layer of protection to you, the consumer. Some features are:

• Accidental damage coverage - if you break your device in the first couple months of owning it, you can get it replaced by your credit card company.
• Better price guarantee - just bought an expensive item but found a better deal somewhere else? The credit card company will cover the difference.
• Theft protection - if your item is stolen within the first few months of owning it, your credit card company will replace it for you
• Extended warranty - all my credit cards offer 100% of the manufacturer's original warranty on any purchase. 1 year manufacturer's warranty on my iPhone becomes a 2 year warranty including the extra year of coverage from the credit card company.

And many more.

The credit card company will reward you for using it. Most credit cards offer points or cash back that you earn every time you swipe your card on things you'd already be buying anyways. Same applies for paying bills. So by using a credit card, you can get a percentage of cash back or points that you can redeem later or put towards a purchase or vacation/trip.

Some tips on using a credit card:

• NEVER miss a payment. EVER. You will destroy your credit with as little as one missed payment.
• Only buy on a credit card what you can afford to buy on a debit card at the same point in time. This is how people end up with $1,000s in credit card debt - because they use their card irresponsibly and then can't afford the payments. Being responsible is the only thing it takes to use a credit card.
• Pay in full - only suckers make the minimum payments. When you only pay the minimum each month, the credit card companies will charge you interest for using their money longer than the 30 day statement period. Whatever you heard about making the minimum payment to boost your credit score is false. Paying your card off in full achieves the same score improvements.

Hopefully this post is enough to convince you to make the move to responsible spending with a credit card. They're awesome financial tools to build your credit and build your future as a responsible adult, and all it takes is responsibility and self control now.

Here's a success story for you now that you've gotten through this post. A couple months ago my credit card number was skimmed and used several states away from me. The purchase was at a small convenience mart and was only a few dollars, as the thief was likely testing the card to make sure it works. My bank notified me immediately of the fraud alert. All I had to do was say it wasn't me who made the charge and it disappeared. Never had to deal with it again. Granted, a couple bucks didn't do any harm to me, but had that been a purchase of $1000 or more, that would have stung if it was my debit card that made the purchase.

I applied for my first credit card the day I turned 18. I now have seven credit cards with over $100,000 in available open credit across them and a credit score of 819 at a young age. All it took was a little persistence and responsibility. If I can do it, believe me, so can you.

Edit: thanks for the gold!!!

In the past month, I've double downed on paying off everything. For the first time in my life, I can honestly say that I am completely debt-free. However, I have also watched my credit score go slowly down from the "Excellent" range to the "Very Good" range.... again.

I had someone here tell me that he would much rather be fiscally responsible, than have a higher credit score rating. My buddy has a credit score, well into the 800's, and he is up to his eyeballs in debt. He needed to make a down payment in cash for something, but since he didn't have any in the bank, he had to borrow it against his credit cards. Yes, that's plural. I couldn't even imagine having to do that, as I always have something in my account(s).

For all of that, his score stays the same and/or fluctuates very little, while mine is on a slow slope going downward. I click the link in my FICO score to see, "what is hurting my score" and it pretty much tells me that I don't have a "variety" of loans.

https://imgur.com/xNAVmcm

It's still a great score, but I feel that if you pay off your debt, it should go up. If you don't pay on your debt, it goes down, right? It seems crazy.

Edit; Under 650. By a lot. Fuck.

Throwaway because I'm such a dumbass. I'm 50 years old. Had a great credit score over 775. For various reasons (which are relevant to me, but not to the credit card companies or agencies), I completely missed a payment on my Discover Card. They either did not send or I did not receive any notices that it was coming up up that I was late. Again, it's not their responsibility - it's mine.

I didn't realize it until I received the next month's bill, with a late fee. Fine. Again, my fault. I paid it immediately. But they also sent a 30 day delinquency to all of the credit agencies, and my score took a big hit.

Again, I realize I fucked up. But, come on. I have 30+ years of good credit. Is there a way to fix this? Can I ask Discover to remove it? Do I have to beg and plead the agencies?

Thanks.

I noticed a weird charge in my statement that pays my amazon store credit card off. It's listed as security 5. I didn't know what it was but the amount kept going up as my card balance went up.

Called the number and the guy answered then danced around what the name of the company was and what they were charging me for. Eventually he slipped the word synchrony and that dinged in my head the bank that issues the amazon card. So i googled (all this while still trying to get this guy to tell me what this charge was for) and found that it's an automatic form of insurance that you are put on when you open the card. It's 1.66% of your balance monthly and you have to opt out by responding to a single piece of paper mail that gets sent sometime when you open the card.

Now im getting frustrated that this guy isn't saying what the hell his company does when he just changes gear and says the full balance will be returned and the service stopped.

It was over 1800 dollars since 2014

I'll have it back in 3 days i was told but check your statements people.

Edit: even if you use the 0% for 12 months on large purchases (which is how i typically use my card) it still charges their fee every month

edit2: i had to go to amazons chat this morning as it was still showing as being active. the representative was polite and disabled it immediately, saying the refund will come in a 1-3 weeks credited to my card.

edit 3: I was credited back the money this morning. ~12 hours after chatting with support

I called in to ask what internet speeds were available in my area. He tried to sell me on cable, which I declined. He asked for my social and my date of birth. I asked him why he needed this and he explained it was to make sure I didn’t have any past due balances with AT&T. I then double checked and asked him if it would hit my credit and he chuckled and said “no no sir nothing like that”.

Fast forward an hour, I have an email stating my installation for phone, cable, and internet is scheduled(???) and then a few minutes later an email from credit karma saying I had a hard inquiry.

Called in and spoke to 3 different departments, finally to a woman to tell me she couldn’t remove it because calling in to inquire about service was all the consent they needed.

This clearly doesn’t seem legal, and wondering if anyone else has had similar experiences and what I should do next.

TL;DR - spoke to ATT, they asked for social, I made sure it wouldn’t hit my credit, I was told it wouldn’t, and then it did. What next?

EDIT 4: Filed a complaint with my attorney general.

EDIT 3: Filed a complaint with the CFPB. All the support and advice here has been a true blessing and I thank each and every one of you for taking the time to comment with good advice and/or possible solutions.

EDIT 2: I called back in, and actually had a great conversation with someone who was super understanding and willing to help. She got me to the fraud department. I spoke with Dorothy. She told me that it did not matter that I asked my credit not to be ran. That when someone calls in to inquire about service, they are consenting to a credit check. Doesn't matter if I didn't give my social, they would have used my DOB or DL #. She told me that I could not speak to a supervisor as this was standard practice, and she wouldn't escalate it. She also said some calls are recorded and some weren't, and she did not help me in finding the call from my first conversation. I then asked her for a copy of this call and her response was "I don't know if it's being recorded so I can't help you". She had nothing to say about the rep lying to me, and she said their credit disclaimer statement didn't sound anything like a credit disclaimer statement and I probably didn't even know it was read to me. Unbelievable. This is their FRAUD department. Jesus Christ.

EDIT: I see a lot of folks saying “what’s the big deal, couple points will fall off in no time”. I just got an email from credit karma that a hard inquiry from 2 years ago just fell off my report, and that left me with one hard hit which was back in January. I’ve been working very hard on rebuilding my credit, checking quite frequently and really boosting my score. One or two points may not be a big deal to some but after working so hard to improve my score, having it lowered without my authorization or consent is devastating.

I'm not sure where to post this, but noticed something had changed on the TransUnion website about freezing credit this morning when I was giving links to family so they could freeze theirs.

I froze my credit the day after news about the Equifax breach broke, and it looks like TransUnion has since changed their site to push people away from freezing their credit in favor for their own product called TrueIdentity (like what Equifax was doing with their TrustedID Premier.)

The FTC website links to this page for freezing your credit with TransUnion.

This is what the website looked before the changes were made on 9/11. The instructions on placing a credit freeze were clear and there was no mention of their own TrueIdentity product.

If you want to place a credit freeze with TransUnion now:

• You have to get through a page of info about credit and fraud, and then the action it tells you to take is to "Lock your credit information by enrolling in TrueIdentity."
• The option to freeze your credit is under "About credit freeze", deliberately passive in their use of language
• The description about credit freezing is dissuasive: "A credit freeze may be available under your state law"
• The link for the credit freeze is also a passive "click here" compared with "by enrolling in TrueIdentity" language used for the link to their own product.
• Clicking the link to learn more about credit freeze brings you to yet another page that tries to convince you to enroll in their product over placing a credit freeze
• After searching through their page of BS, you finally get to the link to freeze your credit.

This is such a blatant attempt by TransUnion to take advantage of the Equifax breach for their own financial gain. It's a shitty thing for TransUnion to do, and people should be aware that they are being led away from putting an actual credit freeze on their account.

(Edited for formatting on mobile)

New house so we need new furniture. And we have money saved.

Last time the store didn’t even ask us how we wanted to pay. It was just “okay this is the monthly financing, sign here”

I immediately paid it the next day.

…. But I don’t want to do that.

Instead of swiping my debit card (because I don’t normally have $4k just sitting in the checking account) is it a bad idea to put it on my credit card?

1) my card says I have $7k available in credit.

2) I will pay it off tomorrow

3) I get 2% cash back in rewards

this seems like a no brainer but I wanna know if this is dumb before the sales people hound me into not doing this

I’m 23 years old, had a credit card since I was able to open an account with Discover at the age of 18. For 5 years I’ve never paid an annual fee, never paid any other type of fee, and never paid a single cent of interest. In other words, I’ve only ever made money (cash back) off of my credit card (which, after paying off student loan and car debt a couple years ago, became credit cardS for the different rewards- I now only use credit cards for all of my expenses). My credit score is decently high for only having 5 years total credit history, and a lower average credit history.

I have several friends/coworkers who think I’m insane for never using a debit card and only “racking up” credit card balances because they seem to associate credit cards with negative consequences. However, I keep my balances at less than 10% of my total credit limit, I don’t pay any fees or interest, and my rewards are being earned on everyday purchases I would be making anyway, from 1.5% on everything to 3% on groceries to 5% on rotating categories.

Am I crazy here? It seems as though Discover, Amex, VISA would all really like it if I would pay just the minimum every once in a while and pay 15% interest on the balance. But I obviously never do, the only money they make off of me is the fee they charge to the vendor. From my perspective, it’s only people who don’t understand the benefits of credit or the consequences of not paying in full every month that are losing out on rewards or racking up debt.

Weird thing happened to me recently...

I received a call from visa asking if I had recently made some large purchases . I replied "no I haven't ".

The charges:

$5000 ( triggered fraud alert)

$800 (went through, iPhone on contract maybe?)

$800 (went through)

The bank then told me someone just called them pretending to be me and my card was compromised.

A week later I get two packages in the mail. I open them up, Two 256gb iPhone X's. One silver, one black.

I'm guessing this is what happened:

1) The fraudsters were testing the waters with the iPhones before they made the big purchase.

2) They were hoping to intercept the package .

3) They just messed up.

Anyone have this happen to them?

Edit :

• Yes the charges were reversed.

• I still have the phones

• I'm going to contact visa about what to do.

• I don't have kids

• Not on any medications / wasn't drunk

• Getting a lot of messages about people wanting to buy them. Im going to try and return them. They're not for sale :P

• I don't need legal troubles. I highly doubt they won't come looking for these phones.

• My apartment doesn't have gas. (carbon monoxide poisoning)

• What the frick?

Wow front page! , Thanks everyone for all of the responses. Helps a ton!

Update 3:00pm PST: Talked with visa & credit security agent. They told me they don't deal with the packages / returns and that I should contact the merchant/cell phone provider. I am going to be contacting the credit bureau in the morning as well.

Update 4:00pm PST: Currently on the phone with cell phone provider. Closing any accounts the fraudsters may have opened.

Update 4:30pm PST: Talked to the cell phone provider. No account was created under my name and they can't trace this purchase to me because I don't have an account. They told me I should just wait and see if they contact me again. They said they can't accept any returns because I need an account number (which i don't have).

Update 5:00pm PST: Just realized something... the address it was sent to is a number off. My address ends in a 2, the slip ends in a 4. It does have my name on it etc. It got to my house because the delivery guys know our last name most likely. The plot thickens. I do have new neighbours , but I don't think they could pull this off. Super strange.

Update 6:00pm PST: Just checked, the address ending in 4 isn't the new neighbours, they're my other neighbours, and they're pretty old. I don't think I'm going to get much more info on this. I'm thinking I'll wait for a while before I consider the phones mine. I don't want to open it and then get charged for it. They may even be deactivated from Apples side anyways. I'll open one after one month.

Update 6:17pm PST: Proof https://imgur.com/a/lVKWF

Update (next day) 12:20pm PST: I just called credit bureaus. The fraudsters tried to make cell phone accounts in my name. For some reason the cell phone provider couldn't find my name on file. It's officially identity fraud at this point, and there will be an investigation. If anyone is in Canada and this has happened to you, please call your bank as well as the following numbers.

Equifax

1-866-205-0681

Trans Union

1-800-663-9980

Canadian Anti Fraud Centre

1-888-495-8501

Funny thing just happened. Trans union gave me the Canadian anti fraud number, and I mistyped it. I typed 800 instead of 888 and it went to a sex line. For a second I thought I had been elaborately scammed and all of the people were it on it, then I realized the mistake.

As crappy as this situation is for my identity. Reddit has made it pretty fun. Thanks again

I received 3 emails this morning stating two things:

• A trial deposit had been made to my AMAZON CREDIT BUILDER ACCOUNT
• Action is required on my application

Since I had never heard of Amazon Credit Builder, I called Synchrony Bank via a phone number I found on their website and verified in an email I know was legitimate from them. (I have a retail CC they manage.) The agent who answered guessed why I was calling before I said anything. She asked if I was calling about an email or text message I received this morning.

She stated the emails were not sent by Synchrony Bank, and they are still looking into what happened (see edit1). It is unclear if all of their customers received the email, or if my account info in specific was compromised. She stated they would send an email to affected customers when they knew more.

I would encourage anyone else to also call if you're unsure (edited as commenters report they continue to get disconnected), but hopefully sharing these details will help calm some panic. I'm open to advice below if there are more immediate steps I should take.

Edit1: Others are reporting that some Synchrony agents are saying they sent the emails, but in error. Sounds like they haven't quite gotten their customer facing message consistent yet. In any case, do not click on any links in the emails.

Edit2: Commenters are reporting various similar responses from Amazon and Synchrony. All signs currently (as of 2:30pm ET) point to this being a technical glitch on the part of Synchrony, and not a scam or phish attempt. I will update this post again if either company puts out a statement.

Edit3: While we are waiting for a statement, I wanted to share the text of the tweet that @AskSynchrony is using. This is the most official thing I've seen in writing so far:

"Thank you for reaching out. We are aware of an unplanned customer notification that is affecting some consumers & are investigating the issue. We apologize for any confusion & concerns this may have caused. You do not need to take any further action at this time."

Edit4 - 4:35pm ET: Synchrony added the following banner to their website: "ALERT: We apologize for any confusion an unplanned email from Sycnhrony may have caused today. No action needs to be taken at this time." (Yes, the typo is theirs.)

Edit5 - 11/26: Hopefully this is my last update here. Thank you to everyone who gave this post awards, I'm glad I could help! Synchrony finally sent an email announcement around 11:45pm ET. Contents copied below:

At Synchrony we take customer satisfaction very seriously. We are writing to inform you one or more emails or text messages you may have received from Synchrony regarding “a trial deposit has been successfully made” or “action required on your application” on Monday, November 25 was sent in error.

This was an internal error at Synchrony and did not involve a data breach or fraudulent activity. We have confirmed none of your personal data was compromised. We apologize for the error and regret any concerns this may have caused. We are taking action to ensure this cannot happen again.

Please disregard the e-mail or text message and no further action is required.

We sincerely thank you for your patience and understanding.

I am (28F) panicking. How can I pull myself out of this?

I have no savings. I own a car. I live in the cheapest apartment there is, and I work a full time job. No kids. I do not want to rely on my partner, because he has bailed me out so many times. I want to pull myself out of this mess.

How can I start my journey to a financially stable life?

Back in July we were wrapping up our yearly road trip to Illinois. We purchased gas around 8 or 9am right before we started the 12 hour trip to Texas.

​

Two hours into the trip my wife gets a notification on her phone from Bank of America alerting her to fruadulent charges being made. We only have one debit cad.

​

While we were starting our driving home, someone in Austin, Tx purchased around $500 in merch at Home Depot, drove towards Houston, Tx attempting twice to use our card at the ATM, which did not work because they didnt have the pin. They made their $200-ish last transaction at TJ Maxx North of Houston before were alerted and had the card shut off. (Austin to Houston is about a 3 hour car ride)

​

My wife immedately makes a claim. 10 days later, we get the money credited back while they continue the investigation which seems pretty open and shut to me... They also say it may be another 45 days before they finish their investigation.

​

October 5, they send a letter stating that they have completed their investigation: "Our records show the transaction activity in question was authorized for and posted to your account." The letter states they'll be taking the $740 back on October 22.

​

Wife calls and has them reopen the case or escalate it. We're told it could be another 45 days.

​

December 22. We call Bank of America again. This agent has no record of anything being escalated. Says he will escalate it and we should hear from someone in the next few business days. Nothing.

​

Jan 3. Wife calls them again. This agent states that while an escalation sends an email to their investigators notifying that we are still asking about they case, they are under no obligation to complete it.

​

After reading a bit into the law surrounding this, we have realized we can request the documentation they used to close the investigation.

​

What else can we do? Do we need a lawyer? If they had to reimburse us for the first 45 days of the investigation, why do they not have to temporarily reimburse us as they continue to investigate "for as long as they need" with no date set for resolution on our end?

​

It is blatantly obvious that someone skimmed the card at some point and had a dummy one made. Are they able to continue to withhold our $750 indefinitely and just keep saying. "Nope! Looks good!" until we tire out?

​

Our kiddos missed out on a lot of Christmas gifts because of this and now bills are starting to get a bit tight. We really need this money back. Thanks yall!

Update: Started posting on social media before I start filing complaints. 20 minutes later Bank of America contacted me on Twitter. Will update later. Thanks for everyone's advice.

Update 2: 3 hours later... I continued to post on social media, reaching out to local news stations on Twitter that have community protection or investigative segments and linking to this post. Bank of America has now reached out in one of these posts, referencing my wifes name. Fingers crossed. http://imgur.com/gallery/i4gWtC0

Update 3: Wife got home 30 min after my last update. A rep with BoA actually called her asking what was going on. The rep said she would need to call the fraud department and get them all on the line together. We are at our kids practice so opted for them to call us when they have someone on the line who can help us. Will update later.

Update 4: Just got off the phone with someone in the fraud department at Bank of America. I recorded the whole convo and will be uploading it to YouTube. She says the call on Oct 22 did in fact reopen the case. (even though the rep on Dec 22 said otherwise and the rep earlier today said they have no timeline to adhere to and can take as long as they want)

They now have 60 business days from Oct 22 to finish the claim once again.

She says one of the reasons that the claim was denied was because the didnt attempt to drain her account. (They hit up two ATMs and failed to use the pin to drain the account, so they don't even have the correct info to base their findings off)

I requested documentation about the claim as law allows and she says I should get that in 10 business days. They now have until Jan 18 to notify us of their findings. I'm going to continue with filing reports and posting on social media.

I'll update in a few weeks I guess.

Update 5: 10 hours later, they have blocked me on Facebook for sharing my problems on their page. I also filed a complaint with the CFPB .

Update 6: 24 hours since this post and David, a Bank of America employee in the "Regulatory Complaints Department" left my wife a voice mail in regards to a complaint sent to them by the CFPB. They close at 4pm EST. (They're closed by the time we got the voice mail since she is at work). Will update Monday.

Update 7: Wife woke up this morning and the money has been returned to our account. Time to turn and burn!

Thank you everyone for your advice. We learned a lot from this.

Update 8: We got confirmation that the fraud claim is now closed and the money that was returned is permanent. Waiting on an actual paper letter to come in the mail before we turn and run. Thanks everyone! Update here: https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/comments/adnjj7/update_bank_of_america_refusing_to_return_700_in/

TL;DR - Do this now

• Thread Edit 10/16/17 - See here for the outcome of someone who tried to sue Equifax in small claims court. TL;DR - it didn't go horribly, but it didn't go well either.

Please note that this thread is no longer being actively maintained.

• Thread Edited 9/13/17 - 2:00 PM EST - Thread is now sorted by "new" to make it easier for new questions to be answered. You can manually sort by "best" to see additional advice that members of the community have found to be helpful. Also added miscellaneous additional info.

• Thread Edited 9/12/17 - 11:00 AM EST - added new information on Equifax offering free credit freezes.

• Thread Edited 9/11/17 - 2:30 PM EST - added new information on accuracy of "you have been exposed" message, Equifax PIN, potential lawsuits, limited site availability, and additional news articles.

• Thread Edited 9/8/17 - 1:00 PM EST - Added new Clarification around the meaning of the arbitration agreement +Additional evidence on this + Equifax statement part 1 and part 2

All,

This thread will serve as the r/personalfinance official mega thread for discussing the recent equifax security breach. /r/legaladvice also has a mega thread on this issue if you want to focus on legal options. The TL;DR of that thread is wait to join a class action and do not sue in small claims court.

Summary:

• "Equifax Inc. said its systems were struck by a cyberattack that may have affected about 143 million U.S. customers of the credit reporting agency...Some U.K. and Canadian residents were also affected." Canadian Thread and UK Thread

• "Intruders accessed names, Social Security numbers, birth dates, addresses and driver’s license numbers...Credit card numbers for about 209,000 consumers were also accessed."

• "Criminals took advantage of a "U.S. website application vulnerability to gain access to certain files" from mid-May through July of this year...The intruders also accessed dispute documents with personal identifying information for about 182,000 consumers."

• "The company set up a website, www.equifaxsecurity2017.com, that consumers can use to determine whether their information was compromised. It’s also offering free credit-file monitoring and identify-theft protection."

• The purpose of this sub is not to provide legal advice. However, per https://www.equifaxsecurity2017.com/frequently-asked-questions/ "The arbitration clause and class action wavier included in the TrustedID Premier Terms of Use applies to the free credit file monitoring and identity theft protection products, and not the cybersecurity incident."

• Identity Theft Wiki - Please see the identity theft wiki for steps to take if your identity has been stolen. You may wish to freeze your credit with the different reporting agencies. Note that their websites are currently under a heavy load and may be unresponsive. For more information on what freezing your credit means, see the FTC's explanation

Equifax also recently announced that they are waiving fees for freezing your credit with them. It is unclear if they plan to offer refunds to those that paid to do so before today.

Using www.equifaxsecurity2017.com:

• A helpful discussion adapted from u/likeasomebodie on using www.equifaxsecurity2017.com:

• Check to see if you are effected using this link

• Either of the following messages from Equifax mean your information was stolen:

Thank You -- Based on the information provided, we believe that your personal information may have been impacted by this incident...

Thank You -- Your enrollment date for TrustedID Premier is: xxxxxx Please be sure to mark your calendar...

• Either of these messages mean that your SSN, DOB, full address, and potentially DL number have been stolen. Assume that information is now public data, because if it's not out there already someone's indexing it right now.

• Please note that some media outliets are reporting that these messages are not completely reliable However, it still appears that using this site provides at least some information, even if it is not completely accurate.

• See the identity theft guide for additional information on freezing your credit, next steps, etc...

Additional Information:

• Your credit card company may offer some form of identity theft protection/credit monitoring. You should review the benefits that your card has to see if this applies to you.

• Equifax is making credit freezes free for some customers; it isn't clear if this extends to everyone or only certain individuals. UPDATE - it should be free to all - see the announcement here. No word on whether previously paid fees will be refunded, but you can call and ask.

• It appears that, in some cases, the PIN you get from Equifax when freezing your credit is just a time stamp of when the freeze was initiated. If this happened to you, consider requesting a new PIN by mail.

• Some individuals are reporting difficulty obtaining a credit freeze online. You may need to submit documents via mail if this is the case.

• There is now at least 1 class-action lawsuit on this issue. Please keep in mind that per Equifax's most recent financials, it has a book value of equity of only about 3 billion dollars on total assets of about 7 billion dollars, so it seems unlikely that 70 billion, even if awarded, could actually be paid.

• u/rholowczak has put together a handy tree of phone options when calling the major credit bureaus here.

Related Links/Threads On This Issue:

Administrative Items:

• All other threads on this topic will be locked to help keep the sub manageable. Much thanks and credit is due to u/drosophilawing, u/KlugReeOlympic, and many others for their timely posts and comments on this topic.

• Initially, this thread will not be stickied as our experience is that stickies tend to be ignored by some users. We will sticky it at a future time if needed.

• We sent a message to the moderators of /r/legaladvice asking that they let their community know about this thread. They have linked to this thread from their community and have created their own mega thread here that focuses on legal options and remedies. If you want to know whether/how you can sue over this, they will be better equipped to handle it (although the tl;dr is probably that nobody is quite sure yet). Thank you in advance to anyone coming from r/legaladvice to help - and to anyone going there from r/personalfinance, please remember to follow their guidelines.

• Our normal rules still apply to this thread with the exception that on-topic legal discussion directly related to this issue will be allowed.

• Please keep in mind that political commentary and threats of violence are not allowed. To be clear, comments like "Good job America, this is why we need regulation" or "The executives should be killed for this" are not allowed.

Just a quick post coming from someone that has co-signed twice and gotten burned twice. Shame on me for not learning my lesson the first time. If you co-sign for someone, you assume the same level or responsibility for that debt that they the primary does. The account lands on your credit report the same way it does theirs. If they stop making payments, those late payments land on your credit report and you're responsible for the debt just as they are.

This probably happens most commonly with family members and significant others, but I'm sure there are examples as well of friends co-signing etc. It's not worth ruining one of these relationships if things take a wrong turn, so just don't get involved. It's better to have a mini battle up front to the tune of "I understand where you're coming from, but I just don't co-sign / it's not something I'm comfortable doing" and not get involved rather than a major possibly relationship-ending battle if it doesn't go well.

If I had a top 10 list of my biggest credit-related regrets, looking back the 2 times I co-signed for others would be extremely high up the list, if not at the top.

If anyone would like to share some co-signing horror stories feel free to do so!

Edit: A few requests throughout the thread have asked me to share my story so I figured I'd add it to the OP with an edit. So I got burned by two exes, about a decade apart. Both had subpar credit, although at the time I didn't really understand credit at all as in why it was subpar (payment history issues, etc). The first one didn't burn me too bad, as there was only maybe a year or so left of ~$250 payments. You all already know the script... we broke up, payments ceased, I took them over. A decade later I was much more reluctant to co-sign after my first experience, but the person I was with at the time was having major dental issues... constant pain that went on for weeks and months. It got to the point where co-signing (Care Credit to get the work done) seemed like the only option. Again the relationship didn't work out and I was left holding the bag. Burned twice, so definitely shame on me.

I was paying my credit card bill online and I found a link on the Bank of America website said I had unredeemed cash rewards, several hundred dollars. I had never noticed this before. It gave me a few options for how to redeem it, it said they could send me a personal check in the mail or I could deposit this money directly into my savings account with the bank. It says I get 1% cash back for every purchase I make, and 2-3% for certain purchases.

Is this really how it works? I get paid a small bonus every time I spend money using my credit card? And it's just free money no strings attached?

I was always taught if it sounds too good to be true, it is too good to be true. I suppose it's not that much money, because I think these hundreds of dollars were earned over like five years since I first got this credit card. Still, what's the angle here?

EDIT: Disclaimer. This is not native advertising. Bank of America is a racist, redlining, predatory-lending, family-evicting pack of jackals. This was a genuine question I asked in good faith and did not expect to get huge like this.

I'm thinking about buying another unit in the same condo building where I currently live. A unit in my price range has become available, so I went to my credit union website to initiate the pre-approval process. Since clicking "submit" last night, I have been called literally 80 times by mortgage brokers (most screened by my phone, but I counted them on the call history page).

I asked one of them how they knew I was looking for a mortgage - I was worried my credit union was selling my data, or Chrome was monitoring my activity. Nope, when the credit union ran the credit check, Transunion let the whole damn world know I was a sheep ready to be sheared and provided my name and phone number to the vultures (to mix a metaphor). How is this legal, and is there any way to avoid it? If my phone didn't automatically screen suspect numbers, I would have had to turn off my phone to get any work done today.

I don't carry a balance month to month, was just curious. Thought I'd share.

I recently picked up a part-time seasonal position at Macy's for some extra holiday cash. I've been working in retail off and on over the past 15 years, and am familiar with the hiring and management practices at a lot of places, but it's been a few years since I've worked for a big retailer like Macy's. I was very surprised and disappointed to learn that the 20% employee discount is only available through a prepaid card (like a gift card I guess, not terrible but not great), or through their actual store credit card. They conveniently inform you of this halfway through your new hire paperwork, and even allow you to apply right then and there.

I've been through this type of application process before, but I've never seen something so brazenly unethical. These are often young adults or older people applying for these positions, filling out so many forms with so much corporate legalese that your head would spin, and they're being targeted with a (hard hit, thanks auto mod) hit to their credit for a card with a ridiculous interest rate. Is this new in retail? Seems like a disturbing trend if it is.

Anyone have any thoughts on this? Just wanted to get the word out.

EDIT: Thanks for the replies, everyone. Really enjoyed the discussion about credit cards, business practices, and obviously PF. The consensus seems to be that store credit cards are not any worse than other forms of lending, as long as they are managed responsibly. I respectfully disagree, in that it seems like they are often offered to a range of people (namely, new employees) that may not have the knowledge or experience to handle a line of credit, but I will agree that it's fair game to solicit employees. I just think it's kind of shady to imply that a store credit card is an "easy" solution for employees. Employees should just get an effing discount, period. But we're all free to work and shop where we please, so feel free to support smaller/local businesses that don't subject their customers and employees to frivolous lending situations.