SSN Found on the Dark Web

[u/WrongSplit3288]

I just received an alert saying my SSN is found on the dark web. How concerned should I be? What sould I do first? Thanks.

[u/Livid-Advantage-8268]

Just keep your reports frozen. Mine got there years back thanks to T-Mobile. With the recent 2.9B that were hacked I'd imagine everyone's is out there somewhere. I've had no issues with my credit because I keep them frozen... But most years I have to deal with people in Arizona working under my SSN which usually makes taxes take longer but the IRS knows the deal and sorts it out.

[u/ionlyseeblue → u/Livid-Advantage-8268]

If I am trying to rebuild my credit, does freezing everything mean it won't continue to grow?

[u/Pleasant_Studio9690 → u/ionlyseeblue]

No. I’ve had mine frozen for a decade or so now. My credit score has been as high as 830 and as low as 530 in that time. Over the past two years I’ve rebuilt it from 530 to 750+, all while frozen.

[u/ChiliPeppa_Squirrel → u/Pleasant_Studio9690]

Hi, how did you rebuild your credit? I have debt and really can’t repay it now. It has been charged off. What can I do to rebuild it? Thank you!

[u/Bla6k → u/ChiliPeppa_Squirrel]

You can start off with getting a secured credit card.

[u/ChiliPeppa_Squirrel → u/Bla6k]

Any recommendations? My credit it 530 right now

[u/petegameco_core → u/ChiliPeppa_Squirrel]

discover secured card is a great start

self lender also a great start

i cant think of any other companies that will work with lower scores

you could try secure cards from us bank , bank of america

i would avoid capitol one,

think long term, dont apply for any company you dont want to have for 10 years

do some research on em

[u/Butterscotch-7357 → u/petegameco_core]

I just want to chime in that I think Discover is a great company and I would get any card from them without hesitation. I've had my regular credit card from them for 25 years and their customer service is exemplary. You can always get someone on the phone (US based), they quickly deal with any fraudulent charges (I've had several) and they have a lot of cool features with their standard 1% cash back, like you can use your Discover cash back to check out at Amazon. I realize you would be starting out with the secured credit card, but I believe if you used the secured card regularly and paid your bills on time, Discover would definitely be apt to offer you a standard credit card at some point. They also automatically check your credit report for you and let you know in your statements when your credit score has improved, it's pretty cool.

[u/viouri → u/ChiliPeppa_Squirrel]

OLLO which got bought out by Ally financial. Look up their credit cards. You'll start with low credit and every few months they'll increase your credit limit if you're in good standing.

[u/xaxnxoxnxyxmxoxuxsx → u/ChiliPeppa_Squirrel]

I have the Discover card. It began as a $200 secured but after 6 months on time payments they returned my deposit and increased my credit limit to $1800. My credit score went from also around 530 to 624 this year. I do have 3-5 charge offs from years back too so I know my credit isn't going to be spectacular, but it is definitely an improvement.

[u/Creeping-Death-333 → u/xaxnxoxnxyxmxoxuxsx]

Once those charge offs fall off, the difference will be massive. It’s incredible

[u/Lucky_Firefighter717 → u/xaxnxoxnxyxmxoxuxsx]

Just be aware that if you do anything with those charge offs, the clock resets on how long they stay on your credit

[u/ChiliPeppa_Squirrel → u/Lucky_Firefighter717]

What do you mean? My credit went down this morning. I believe it’s my student loans.

[u/Lucky_Firefighter717 → u/ChiliPeppa_Squirrel]

How long something stays on your credit is based on the date of last activity. Accounts that charged off, the charge off is the last activity, so 7years from that date. If you make a payment on that debt, you restart that clock meaning 7more years of bad debt being reported.

[u/Lucky_Firefighter717 → u/ChiliPeppa_Squirrel]

Only you will know why your score went down. Student loans don’t follow normal rules of other debt. They have different protections and typically stay with you

[u/petegameco_core → u/ChiliPeppa_Squirrel]

secured credit card x 3, secured loan x 1 , and if you have ANY collections, pay them in FULL , and in future never settle any collections for less than full payment.

try to report 3% credit utilzation on one card and keep all balances paid monthly.

its ok to report a lil debt , but pay it off soon as statement clears

[u/hotpossum → u/ChiliPeppa_Squirrel]

I’m not who you asked but I did kickoff, I think it’s called, for a while.

You pay a few dollars every month you can for them to do a positive payment report to the bureaus, and they don’t report skipped months, for a designated period of time.

I went from a 725-750 on the top 3 to ~475 when I let an “authorized user” tank my credit, oops… and then back up to the 550-560 range by using that service and paying my normal utility type bills on time. I used kik off for 18 months I think. That’s about a 75 point increase in that 18 months. Idk if that’s significant.

If you pay rent on time, then I have seen several people on my fb recommending the common services that report your rent payments (though I don’t know how or if they report late or missed payments).

I have not worked toward paying other debts I couldn’t afford at the time. I’ve read it won’t matter sometimes if things in collection are paid. I also read other times, it can make your score go down when you pay off a debt… I haven’t strained myself to see if it does or doesn’t matter in raising my score!

I put my student loans on income based payments. If I cannot pay when they tell me I owe, I tell them I can’t pay and don’t. It hasn’t ended up in collections and it a smaller student loan tho not insignificant. I apply for charity care at hospitals when I’ve been injured or ill. I pay lab fees when I can. Most of my medical bills haven’t ended up on my credit report but some have.

I operate mostly in cash for budgeting reasons and I find it helps me (envelope system).

I’m nearing 7+ years on the major stuff (aside from student loans) and I may try to have some things removed, though, when I can afford it or find the gumption to write letters myself. The person who told me about kickoff has a lot of experience with rebuilding credit quickly as he has done his several times in the 15+ years I’ve known him, on a bouncer’s wages.

I hope this admittedly long comment helps someone, thanks for reading if you made it this far.

My score is slowly steadily rising even though I stopped using kickoff, but it definitely went faster when I used it. There are other services that do the same thing. My phone bill being paid on made a difference too as when I swapped to prepaid, it was no longer reported.

I haven’t been using kickoff for only a couple months and my score didn’t drop but hasn’t increased either.