How To Restore Your Credit Card Score After Identity Theft

Posted by Nick Niesen on October 29th, 2010

Credit card identity theft where your credit card is stolen, your PIN is stolen or someone opens another credit card in your name, can all be particularly damaging to your credit score. Unfortunately a credit score isn?t so easily restored but there are a couple of things you can do to make the best of the situation and restore it as much as possible. In this article we will look at what you should do before and after credit card identity theft in order to best protect and restore your credit score.

The first thing you should do whenever you receive a new credit card is to make photocopies of both sides of the card and file these away in a safe place. This way if your credit card goes missing or you believe it may have been compromised you can immediately put a stop to it.

Regularly request credit reports on your name. These credit reports will show you whether any other credit cards have been opened in your name that you do not know about. The sooner you find out that a card has been opened in your name that is incorrect the sooner you will be able to put a stop to it and prevent any damage from occurring.

Only carry around with you those credit cards that you are going to be using and try to keep a minimum of credit cards.

If you discover that your credit card has gone missing or if there is any chance that your credit card information may have been compromised and used in credit card identity theft then the first thing you should do is to stop the relevant card or cards. Phone the card issuer and let them know that you believe you may have been a victim of credit card identity theft and if they could immediately put a stop to all purchases on the card.

You should also contact one of the credit card bureaus if you believe you have been a victim of credit card identity theft and report the matter to them. They can then put a fraud alert on your credit report which will make it more difficult for anyone to open another account in your name.

File a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission and with the local police station where the ID theft took place and give them a copy of your form from the FTC. For more info see http://www.preventidentitythefthelp.com/Identity_Theft_Protection on identity theft protection.

By following these preventative measures and taking action if you believe you have been a victim of credit card identity theft you will be in a much better place to restore your credit score if anything does happen and will hopefully be able to prevent too much damage taking place from the start.