General Credit Topics

[percy81]

Hello my fico friends, I'm not sure on the dates but I believe it was 3 months ago when I placed a fraud alert on my report ( someone was trying to by things in a diff state with my debit number) I  believe it was for 90 days. Anyways, my question is I want to add a family member as an authorized user on my credit cards to help rebuild their credit, now will the fraud alert I have placed effect me from doing this? Also, will they not report my good history to their credit file because of the FA?

  Thank you ;-) ****also, one more thing, my family member lives in a different state, will this effect him? Should I just put MY address where it asks where the AU user lives?

[rightcoast]

My advice to you would be to lift the fraud alert from the CRA's. Call them and tell them to remove it and then add your family member?

Shouldnt affect him on where he is located. Use his address.

You can always ask the bureaus on what the fraud alert does and the question regarding your AU. They answer

[RobertEG]

If it was just an initial fraud alert, they expire after 90 days.

If an extended fraud alert, the period is longer.

Did you send them a copy of a police report when requesting the fraud alert, and request an extended alert?

[percy81]

I never sent in a police report nor did I requested extended time.

[IOBA]

Which credit card are you doing this with?

Some of the cc companies will only update the credit file for the person with the same address.  (Discover card would not report for an AU with a different mailing address.)

[RobertEG]

Initial, or "one-call", fraud alerts are provided for under FCRA 605A(a), and require only request from the consumer, upon proof of identity.

They have no specified expiration date.  Rather, that section provides that the CRA must maintain the initial alert for no less than 90 days.  Inference is that they are removed after that period.  However, I doubt that the CRAs do daily scours of all credit reports and track date from an initial fraud alert. 

Any fraud alert can be removed by the consumer at any time by simply notifying the CRA, so if you want to be sure of its removal, simply contact the CRA,  I suspect that they place the burden on the consumer to rescind their own request.

Requirement to keep a fraud alert on file for more than 90 days requires providing the CRA with a copy of an identity theft (police) report, so if one was not provided, it is only an initial alert.  However, even if considered as an extended alert, the consumer always has the same right to rescind their own fraud alert.