What Is The Positive Side Of A Fraud Alert?

Fraud alerts are a great way to protect yourself from criminals opening accounts in your name.  Once you put a fraud alert on your credit profile, with a phone number you can be contacted at, it is nearly impossible for credit to be opened in your name without your approval. When applying for new credit the creditor, who pulls your credit prior to deciding if you are credit worthy, will see a fraud alert and will not open credit without calling you first. Once you get the call you will be able to intercept any credit that you have not authorized before it can cause damage to your credit and your life. It usually takes 2-3 days for creditor’s to contact you directly. I believe this is changing and will eventually be within minutes that a creditor will contact the consumer to verify the application.