Credit and Identity Theft From A Personal Perspective

I woke up this morning thinking to myself, “What could I possibly say to make credit and identity theft an appealing topic of discussion?” The truth is, most of us probably don’t even think about those subjects most days of our lives — only when it becomes necessary, and by then it might be too late.

So as I thought about this, I figured the best way to connect with you and make these topics relevant was to tell you MY story. Maybe then we have something we can talk about together. I’m not going to get into too many specifics but I will be honest.

The first time I can remember the term credit being something of concern was when I was in the Marine Corps. I went to my first duty station and ended up needing a car, so I went to my credit union, and what do ya know, I had no credit. Why would I??? But I did have a steady income, so not having credit was less of an issue. Keep in mind this was back in 1994. So I get my first car and the interest was probably 9%. So what happens next?? Credit card offers and offers to finance pretty much anything started coming in. I started racking up all sorts of stuff. Don’t get me wrong, I was having fun.

I will say, like most people in my generation, credit and finances weren’t really a big topic of discussion at home. Other than, “SAVE YOUR MONEY,” there really were no specifics to get into. I don’t blame my parents, I just think it was a product of that day in age.

So anyway, I’m off to the races and I’m making payments but then other things get in the way. Like life… Priorities change; therefore where your money goes changes too. You always think you can catch up but you just can’t help but dig a bigger and bigger hole. It took me a long time to learn that if you find yourself in a hole, stop digging! Needless to say things progressed like that for a little bit. My credit wasn’t bad but not necessarily good. It’s like a roller coaster. Things go great for awhile and then something happens you can’t control. You’re forced to make tough decisions sometimes.

So the years go on and I’m paying high interest sometimes and other times I’m not. I’m kind of figuring it out as I go. Then the bigger decisions come into play. I want a house. How do I do this with mediocre credit and get a good interest rate? Now it becomes a priority for me to fix my credit by paying off things I really did owe and fixing the errors on things that weren’t mine. I invested a lot of time and money to get this done. It was worth it but if I had paid more attention in the past, maybe I could have saved myself some time and money. Maybe the hard times wouldn’t have been as hard, and perhaps the good times could have been even better. I have no regrets though.

For most, credit and identity theft don’t become an issue until there’s already an issue. I’ll be honest – I probably wouldn’t think of them either had I not taken this position. I’m forced to learn the ins and outs of this industry so I can try and make things make sense for all of you. Maybe make things just a little bit clearer. ‘Cause let’s face it, I’m learning along with you. I’m trying to understand all of this so maybe one day I can educate my daughter so that she can make better decisions than I did.

We all need to come to grips with the fact that we live in a digital society. Our information is at our and everyone else’s finger tips. You want to be mobile? You want to engage in social media? You want to bank digitally and use credit cards? Then you have to protect yourself. It’s something I’ve realized and have come to terms with. We buy insurance for our cars, homes and even insurance on ourselves. It’s called life insurance.