Question on fraud alerts...

[Slow Eddie]

My wife's purse was recently stolen from our SUV (in the church parking lot no less), and whom ever did it immediately began using her credit cards, and even worse called and requested a credit line increase on one of her cards.... which was denied, jokes on them.

Anyway, my wife is one of those smart people who carries her social security card around in her purse, so that is gone too. We've already canceled all of her credit cards and taken the necessary steps to get her documentation back, but I was wondering what the repercussions of a fraud alert on your credit report are.

Do we need to call back and have them removed once this blows over, or do they expire after a certain amount of time? How will a bunch of closed and reopened accounts affect our credit scores?

Worst of all, we've already been preapproved for a mortgage... hopefully this won't ruin our chances of buying a home.

And even more worst of all, I'll never feel like my wife's credit is safe now that someone has all of her info. Just when we got her scores where they need to be something like this happens.

Eddie

[swirlgirl]

You'll want the fraud alert to prevent the thief from randomly opending new accounts with her SS#. You also want to pull credit reports and file ID Theft paperwork with the FTC and a police report. You'll need the documentation to help keep your mortgage moving.