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Email this3:17 pm
January 16, 2017
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jtfrogger said
I do a number of things.1) I am very protective of my personal information. No one gets my SIN unless they will generate a T-slip. My drivers license number is another thing that I don't hand out. I'll question any piece of data a company wants to collect from me. I've challenged a number of organizations on what they want to collect. I'll even challenge a company on collecting my phone number, even though my land line is easily found online. (I probably should make it unlisted, but it's been out there for a long time. Making it unlisted would only work if I get a new number.) When a business won't budge on inappropriate collection of personal information, I follow up with the provincial privacy office. They have been awesome to deal with.
2) For online accounts, I use a different email address for each one. I have my own domain, so it is easy. If one email address is made public, it is a single use address. If I start getting spam, I generally know where the leak happened. With the unique email addresses, I am less concerned about reusing passwords on lower risk sites. I then can reuse strong passwords without too much concern for it being compromised. I'll probably move to a password service like LastPass, but I have not gotten around to it.
3) I monitor my credit report through Credit Karma (Transunion) & Borrowell (Equifax). I would notice a new account very quickly. This doesn't prevent a breach, but limits the impact should one happen.
4) I monitor all my bank & credit card accounts at least weekly. When I am really busy, I will at least review the monthly details. But it is a lot easier to remember transaction details when done more often. I'm not too concerned about protecting credit card data beyond this. Fraudulent charges are quickly reversed. So, I don't use RFID-blocking wallets/sleeves. The ramification of a card being compromised is only a two minute phone call and using an alternate card for about a week.
Thanks for this information, really helpful ideas, for what I was looking for.
Regarding Credit Karma (Transunion) & Borrowell (Equifax), you found a "free way" to cover both angles, but are they bugging you a lot with offers ? This is how they get pay to provide that "free" service, right ?
6:06 pm
January 3, 2019
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AlainJF said
Thanks for this information, really helpful ideas, for what I was looking for.
Regarding Credit Karma (Transunion) & Borrowell (Equifax), you found a "free way" to cover both angles, but are they bugging you a lot with offers ? This is how they get pay to provide that "free" service, right ?
Yes, they are funded through sales of financial products.
The only emails I get from Credit Karma are notices of new accounts. This is a very useful service, since one of the main reasons I have it is to monitor my credit. A new account notice is exactly what I want.
Borrowell sends regular advertising emails. They are easy enough to ignore, so they don't bother me at all.
Both websites show various financial products that they recommend. I find it interesting to see what pops up. But I largely ignore them.
Overall, I like Credit Karma better. The emails are better and you get weekly updates instead of monthly of your credit report/score. But I still recommend them both to have coverage of both Transunion & Equifax.
7:54 pm
April 6, 2013
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If one banks with Scotiabank or RBC Royal Bank, then one may already have access to the credit report and a credit score from TransUnion.
TransUnion CreditView is offered for free by RBC Royal Bank and Scotiabank:
7:24 am
October 27, 2013
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I get my Credit Karma via Scotia whenever I wish to pull that data. I am pretty sure Capital One offers the same thing but I have never tried it out.
8:24 am
January 3, 2019
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For the banks, I also have credit score and limited information available from CIBC & Capital One.
CIBC checks Equifax and provides your credit score every three months. There are no details behind it, so I never bother looking at it. The one nice thing is that you do get an notification whenever there is a new hard hit or account.
Capital One checks Transunion. There are a few more details than CIBC, since it lists accounts and balances. One nice feature that it has is that the summary page has some a couple good stats like your total utilization and total available credit.
Although they each have minor nice features, I still prefer the details from Credit Karma & Borrowell much better. I like being able to see the details of the accounts on the credit report such as payment history, opened date, date of last payment, date last reported, etc.
I just logged into RBC to see what their tool is like. It is pretty good. It updates monthly, which is good enough. The details are all there, similar to CK & BW. I'll probably just stick with CK & BW as my two main sources for credit report details.
11:17 am
December 7, 2011
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I can't check my credit information from October 2013, when Peoples Trust has placed a flag on my credit file with both credit bureau service providers.
Credit Karma & Borrowell also do not provide me with any information.
So, I guess, I'm very much protected until October 2019 (flag will stay for 6 years, as far as I know).
After that I will check my credit info for the first time in 6 years and probably will monitor regularly with Credit Karma & Borrowell.
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