It’s that time of year again! The holidays are fast approaching, and that means it is shopping season for you AND identity thieves. The modern-day Scrooge is waiting to strike. Are you prepared? Here at United Bank, we offer customers Credit Monitoring and Identity Theft Restoration Services through ID TheftSmart.

Credit Monitoring:

Receive notifications when one of the following activities is detected on your credit file:

1. New account opening
2. Credit Inquiry (used when opening a new credit card, loan, etc.)
3. Payment Delinquency (if you are 30 days late on a payment or more)
4. Public Record Changes (includes items sent to collections)
5. Change of Address

What is monitored?

You have the choice of Credit Monitoring for 1 bureau (TransUnion) or all 3 bureaus (Equifax, Experian, TransUnion).

How do I receive Alerts?

Online OR via postal delivery. Or you can log in online to see your alerts at any time.

Online delivery alerts are provided daily and no activity notices are received monthly. Alerts delivered via the postal service are delivered monthly and no activity notices are sent out quarterly.

ID Theft Restoration Services:

Automatically included when you sign up for Credit Monitoring but is also available separately.

Who is covered?

Your household. If you sign up for ID Theft Restoration Services or Credit Monitoring, your spouse or dependent on the account with you will be covered. However, if the joint account owner is not your spouse or dependent (older child, mother, father, etc.) then they would need to sign up for service on their own. 

What does an Investigator do?

Your investigator can help with Identity Theft, or they are available for things not directly related to ID theft, such as…

• If you receive a suspicious email, you can call and ask what they think about it.
• If you are going out of the country and want to know how to protect your card information, identity, etc. while overseas, they can help with that.
• If you get a letter saying you are on a breach list, they can let you know what you need to do about that.  
• They can help you analyze your credit report and look for inconsistencies.
• If your wallet is lost or stolen, they will help you figure out which companies you need to contact to close and will help you add a fraud alert to your credit file.
• They can also provide you with information and help you decide whether it would be beneficial to add fraud alerts and credit freezes to your credit file.

If you are a victim of Identity Theft…

• They’ll investigate, confirm and establish scope of theft.
• Assist in obtaining a police report.
• Provide a 3-bureau credit report and perform a full non-credit search.
• They do the work on behalf of the customer until all the identity theft issues have been resolved. You get a professional who knows how to file the necessary forms and contact the right people, rather than having to try to do (and learn) it all yourself.
• Once resolved, they’ll place a seven-year fraud victim statement with credit reporting agencies when applicable.

Ready to enroll? Call us today at 479-756-8811, or stop by any of our locations in Springdale, Fayetteville, or Rogers. And remember, just like Santa, ID TheftSmart is always watching (your credit and identity that is…)!