Hi,
DH and I are building a new house, and have been approved for a mortgage by the builder's mortgage company. We just got a notice that their on-line pre-approval site got hacked, and all our info has been compromised--SSN, DL #, DOB, employment history, salary, everything. 
We immediately placed a fraud alert against our files with the credit bureaus as per the mortgage company's instructions, but now I'm wondering about repercussions down the line. Does a fraud alert impact FICO scoring at all? I wouldn't think so, but I don't want to assume anything. Will this cause us any difficulty if we decide to shop for a better rate as we get closer to closing? We applied with their mortgage company just to get the ball rolling, but have considered shopping around for a better deal. I'm a little freaked...
thanks!
bump...any feedback please?
Put a credit FREEZE on your CR. It will cost a tiny bit of money each time you need to unfreeze and refreeze ($10 at each CRA), but I would ask the mortgage company to pay that for anything they need. Current creditors can see the account and you can get a PIN that you can provide other folks you want to get credit from.
Here's the deal - a fraud alert simply tells the creditors they have to take extra steps to make sure it's you. A freeze means no new folks can look at your report. One is a little more safety (fraud alert) one is foolproof (freeze).
Considering the amount of info they have, and the fact that you are building a house, I would definately go for the freeze and ask them to cough up the 30 bucks.
Starting Score: TU 672 EQ 654 10/20/09