How does your credit get affected by a closed credit card account due to a stolen credit card?
What happens to one’s credit when the person’s sole credit card is taken and used illegally? We’re not sure how this will affect efforts to refinance, as this is my wife’s only credit card. She will be receiving a replacement in the next week and will have an affidavit indicating that the charges were not hers.
Any suggested approaches to ensuring that her credit info is considered before the card was stolen and the account closed?
June 30th, 2010 at 4:39 pm
I’m not entirely sure but I think it just makes credit card companies stay away from you for not being able to keep track of your cards, I guess they think if it happened once it will happen again.
June 30th, 2010 at 4:59 pm
It should not affect your credit at all. This recently happened to my wife. The creditor will indicate to the credit bureaus that the account was closed because the card was reported lost/stolen.
June 30th, 2010 at 5:47 pm
Im not sure why someone posted it shouldnt effect your rating. Of course it does. Stolen or not doesnt matter, If you keep getting rear ended your car insurance will eventually go up. If you have stolen cards or a card, your at higher risks than someone else. Lenders may consider you live in the bad part of town, maybe you frequently leave your purse or wallet in the car. Yes it effects you and your beacon score(credit rating will go down). Nothing you can do but wait it out and see if your rating recovers after a few years
June 30th, 2010 at 6:35 pm
You really shouldn’t have much of an impact, since the card is being re-issued. Basically you still have the same account, same history, same limit as the old card, just with a new number. She will need to be very careful about the fraudulent purchases. If the bank does not wave them, she could be held responsible. If she doesn’t pay this will hurt her credit. To be on the safe side take the affidavit with you when you re-finance this will be your proof that if anything negative shows up, it wasn’t yours.
My next question has to be how did they get her card. If a wallet was stolen, home broken into, mail stolen, keep in mind the other info this thief may have. Name, address, social, etc they may have more than enough to commit credit fraud,(Opening other lines in her name) it may be a good idea to sign up for a credit monitoring service for a little while.
June 30th, 2010 at 7:16 pm
you are not responsible for any debt if your credit card was stolen and used. it is a long process but you can actually remove it and not pay. its not your falt, though it will be treated as if your just trying to get away from paying your debt… so says Dave Ramsey