How to Discover If Crooks Have Opened Bank Accounts in Your Name
A report you’ve probably never heard of can alert you to problems in your banking history. Here’s what every consumer should know about it — and how to get a free copy.
If you’ve heard about the Equifax data breach, you should have checked your credit reports by now.
The hack of that credit reporting agency potentially could have put your personal information into the hands of thieves, allowing them to open different types financial accounts in your name.
Regularly checking credit reports helps keep them clean, which is the key to a strong credit score. Experts urge consumers to monitor credit reports so they can catch identity thieves who open fraudulent credit card accounts in a consumer’s name.
But what if a crook opens a bank account in your name, perhaps with plans to bounce checks or overdraft the account at your expense?
Unfortunately, that account likely will not appear on your credit reports. Instead, it will show up on your checking account reports.
What is a checking account report?
There are multiple types of consumer reports. Credit reports, which reflect your credit and loan-repayment history, are just one type.
Checking account reports, which reflect your check-writing and banking history, are another type of consumer report.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, or CFPB, explains:
“Some banks and credit unions use checking account reports to help decide whether to offer consumers a checking account. Checking account reporting companies compile these reports using information from other banks and credit unions about consumer’s’ checking account and transaction history.”
Checking account reports contain negative information collected from banks and credit unions. For example, this information can include that a checking account was closed due to unpaid overdrafts or unpaid fees, the CFPB says.
E. Bishop III, The Money Connection.Com
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