Arizona Daily Star
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 09.22.2007
Filling Out A Credit Application Doesn't Have To Be Scary
Whom Can You Trust?
It's a question likely weighing on many consumers' minds in the wake of the indictments of three employees at Arizona Honda, 4710 S. Palo Verde Road.
The three are accused of using customer credit application information — including names, birth dates and Social Security numbers — to obtain and use credit cards in those customers' names.
The general manager at Arizona Honda, which sells motorcycles, ATVs and power equipment, declined to comment for this story.
Consumers are frequently in a position where they must apply for credit through a retailer or through a bank in order to acquire large items such as furniture or vehicles. And people rarely personally know the employee who is taking the credit application.
How do people know their information is safe?
"The key that everybody can do is go out and place a fraud alert with the major credit bureaus," said Todd Davis, CEO of Tempe-based LifeLock, an identity-theft-protection company.
Once fraud alerts have been placed, you will receive a phone call — most people register their cell phone numbers — anytime someone tries to open a credit line in your name, Davis said.
If it's you trying to open the account, then you'll get the call while you're standing there.
If it's not you or if you don't answer, then the credit application is declined at the other end, he said."Anybody can place these fraud alerts for free, but you do have to remember to renew them every 90 days," Davis said.
Or people can subscribe to a service such as LifeLock, which for $10 a month will stay on top of renewing the fraud alerts and opting out of mailing lists, agreeing to cover all losses and expenses up to $1 million should its system fail.
There are other details for consumers to be aware of, said Tom Collier, president of the Better Business Bureau of Southern Arizona.
Some businesses try to tell people that the Patriot Act requires them to fill out a credit application, which is simply not true, he said.
If you're not applying for credit from a particular store — for example, if you got pre-approved through your bank before going shopping — then you don't need to fill out an application, he said.
Even bringing pre-approval with you to a dealership isn't bulletproof, he said.
"Who's to say the crook isn't at the credit union?" Collier asked.
In the case of the Arizona Honda employees, he said it's ethically incumbent on the company to notify everybody who has applied for credit there for the past three years and let them know this compromise has occurred.
"This type of stuff stays with a company," Collier said. "They're labeled with this type of stuff if they don't do something very quickly to show they're a responsible company. This is crisis management. This is disaster management."
Elsie MacMillan, owner of Sierra Toyota in Sierra Vista — which won a BBB Ethics Award in 2005 — said her company allows only the general sales manager and the finance manager to handle client credit information, which is "kept under lock and key."
Dealership employees never ask for credit information unless someone is applying for a loan, she said, and a lot of credit applications are handled online.
"The less you have in black and white, (on) paper, is better," MacMillan said.
LifeLock's Davis happily tells everyone his Social Security Number — it's even listed on the company's Web site, www.lifelock.com — because he hopes to see a day when everyone has fraud alerts, making such information useless to thieves.
"Don't live in fear," he said. "Don't worry about doing an application, and unscrupulous people are going to be there. You can have peace of mind. Take the power back."
Contact reporter Shelley Shelton at sshelton@azstarnet.com.
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