Target announced today that anyone who shopped in a Target store between 11/27 and 12/15 has been the subject of a credit card breach.  The data breach includes customer names, credit and debit card numbers, card expiration dates and the three-digit security codes located on the backs of cards.  They are saying over 40 Million accounts are compromised (roughly 35% off the US).

With that much information involved, you need to keep a close eye on your accounts!  You really already should, but this emphasizes why.  There are a number of things you can do, from putting fraud alerts on your credit cards to putting freezes on your your reports.  It will cost most folks between $3 and $10 to freeze each report and then another fee to temporarily “thaw” your report if you want to open an account.

Sadly my sister-in-law learned the hard way earlier this year that your checking account can be drained in an instant before you even know it.  So for anyone that used debit cards at Target please be very attentive your account.  

It is important to note, that Target is saying this is now fixed.  I will probably still be a cash girl there for a bit…

Want to handle it yourself?

• Here’s info on freezing credit reports.
• Make sure that for right now you turn off any link between your checking and savings account.  You’ll need to be careful to not over draw your checking, but this way they can’t get your checking and savings drained!
• If your debit card has a Visa or Mastercard logo on it you can also get some protection from them.  They are supposed to give your money back in 10 days or less.
• Call all of your credit cards and put fraud alerts on the accounts.  This will make any large purchases have to verbally approved by you and can be frustrating in the store, but is worth the extra hassle.

Life Lock
With all of this, I will share that my family has had life lock for the last year.  I know that many will say that you can do most of this yourself, but in reality you can’t be that vigilant.  They notified us within 2 hours of a credit account being opened in our name, send emails if anyone using our name or personal information turns up in public records anywhere in the US (there is a very bad person with my husbands name and birthday in New Mexico that has actually caused us problems in the past), you get monthly credit rating reports, emails if a sex offender registers in your area, plus to me the best part if something does happen they cover you up to 1 million dollars.  For my sweet sister in law that had her checking out drained and over $10,000 in debt added to her name this would have been huge!  She ended up having to get a lawyer just to have the bank fix it.

Life Lock isn’t cheap, but I view it like insurance.  It’s $22.50 a month or $247 a year (slightly cheaper than monthly), right now you can also get a free 30 day trial.