It's worse. It's our debit card. Someone got the information, and must have had their own card made up, because the bank can tell the card was swiped (as in run through the little reading machine).

Scott's been on the phone with the bank. To be clear, we didn't lose the 800 bucks. The bank's fraud division caught on, and denied the transaction. We just have to make sure they haven't done anything else, and we have to shut off all our cards tied to the account, and close our checking, and of course all our bills are due right now.

Are there only the three big credit reporting agencies? What are they, again? How do I contact them? I know I could google this stuff, but my brain is too busy being upset and in a panic.

It's worse. It's our debit card.

Someone tried to do this to our debut card twice in the last few months, with phone charges, which the bank caught because they didn't have that little three-digit number in the signature line on the back of the card.

Do you need to report it to the credit reporting agencies, since it's debit? And they didn't actually get the money?

Calm~ma. Deep breaths.

I'm about to google for you, but wanted to mention that when you do call them, there's an option on the phone thing that asks if you want to put a fraud alert on your report. You say, yes, and they'll do so and send you a copy of your report lickety split. With a fraud alert, they are supposed to contact the other two agencies, but I found that didn't work out. I had to contact both Equifax and Experian, and one of them (the second one I contacted) contacted Transunion for me.

That's my experience with putting a fraud alert on my report.

Oh, Cindy. That's awful! I'm so sorry.

Yes, there are three major credit reporting agencies: TransUnion, Equifax and Experian.

Hey, I'm all for visiting Minneapolis. Sadly, she lives in *Duluth*. What the hell is in Duluth???

Hmmm. Think Buffalo, NY. It's actually amazingly pretty, but yeah, small town. And very windy in the winter. However, they have a hell of a jazz festival and they host Grandma's Marathon every June.

Fuckit. Come visit anyway!

woot billytea!!!

Vibes for you, vw.

Cindy! The hell? What's going on, sweetie?

edit: and I see now. Damn. Nora and others have good advice.

We have credit cards through the same bank through which we have our checking/savings/debit account.

I want to at least request copies of our credit report and make sure everything is on the up and up, because if someone had enough of our information to make up a debit card (it was swiped, so they had a physical card made), then they might have had enough of our information to open accounts elsewhere under our names.

Cindy, if you go to this page [link] you'll see instructions on what to do and towards the bottom there are links to all three credit bureaus. Even though the credit bureaus are supposed to notify each other, it's my understanding that you really need to put a fraud alert on all three.

Ginger, the little demons are actually pretty good right now. Aidan's gotten a bit more challenging lately, but Kara's been a little less challenging, so it sort of evens out.

vw, I hope they call within the next few minutes.

Cindy, oh that's gut-wrenching. I hope that's the only thing they tried with the card and I'm so glad your bank caught it and denied.

Nora, vw, thank you. Bastards. Why don't they pick on people who have actual money left over, once the bills are paid?

edited to remove information.

Experian: [link] 888 397 3742 Equifax: [link] Call 1-888-766-0008 TransUnion: [link] 800-680-7289

This link is helpful too: [link]

And a general to-do list for fraud: [link]

I beleive they recommending reporting fraud by phone, rather than online.