It has now been a little over a month since I got back from my deployment and it has been GREAT!  With that, I wanted to take some time to go over what we’ve done and some financial “nuggets” to share.  Of course, I had that stereotypical “burning a hole in my pocket” purchase – a Nikon D850 along with a few lenses and accessories and I do not regret it for a second.  The camera was also used in conjunction to hit my minimum spending on a new credit card, which will segue into the main point of this article in just a few sentences…

Although I could have done with a cheaper set-up, the fact that this did cost as much as it did makes me push myself even harder to get out and make sure it is being used.  It is far more difficult to make excuses to myself and forego the opportunities to leave the house and travel around.  Not just the historical/popular tourism areas (although we definitely have been doing that), but also going off the beaten path up one-lane, but two-way roads, various lakes, caves, and so on.  Definitely part of that “build the life you want and then save to maintain it” mantra that I cling to.  As an added bonus, most of those areas are dog friendly, so our pup has been enjoying the journeys as well! Here he is being his goofy, adorable self:

Getting back on the title’s topic, getting that minimum spending was the primary target for us so we can load up on another credit card and have that as the answer to “how can you guys afford to travel so much?” As we reached that spending with my new card, we wanted to open up the same card, but this time in my wife’s name.  Surprisingly, she was denied.  They annoyingly did not want to give us a reason at first and we were very curious as she got both a CSR and an AMEX plat earlier this year, so we knew her credit score and our household income should have been more than good enough.

After calling back, sitting on hold, and getting transferred numerous times, we found out that it was due to her credit history.  Apparently, she had a loan opened in her name earlier in the year just as COVID hit and have since defaulted on it.  In addition, these people assholes registered her name and social with Experian and Equifax themselves in attempts to prevent her from getting her credit discrepancy fixed, locking down her social, and just overall getting all this taken care of.

Unfortunately for us, the previous credit cards she was approved for were opened just before that loan was taken out so we never did see it on her hard pull credit reports.  All of the score reporting we had through the credit card companies are still not showing the delinquency – although they did show the hard pulls and new accounts opened (which we thought were just due to the credit card applications). 

FORTUNATELY for us, it has only been a few months, so while the damage is definitely there, it is not as extensive as it could have been and we were able to catch it early so we can begin the long process of getting it all repaired.

Overall, this is yet another, albeit VERY unconventional positive of playing the credit card game.  If we kept with just our regular cards, who knows when we would have noticed this, and it could have severely screwed us over when we went back stateside with things like vehicle, or house loans. Hopefully we can get this taken care of soon and get back to hitting minimum spending targets yet again to get the full advantage of all the various credit cards we can.

Obviously the title is a bit tongue-in-cheek.

Finding out that your identity was stolen because of a credit card application is definitely not a usual perk. We definitely got lucky with the timing, both from when we found out about this as well as our current geographical position.

Most importantly, take the following message to heart:

Military members give out their social on nearly a daily basis. Whether it’s plugging it into various forms online, at the doctor, or through phone calls, the amount of times I’ve recited my social is something I lost count many YEARS ago. Data breaches happen, and they happen OFTEN.

YOU CAN STAY SAFE(R) BY FOLLOWING THESE TIPS:

1. Check your credit reports every 4 months through http://www.annualcreditreport.com – you are entitled to 3 credit reports for free every year. Space it out so you can get a good look of what’s going on.
2. Every time you apply for a credit card or loan with banks that do a hard pull are mandated to give you the option of getting a copy of that credit report. Always opt in to fill any gaps, or the space out he credit report you are getting through the website above.
3. Register through the big bureaus (Equifax, Transunion, Experian) so nobody can create secondary accounts without jumping through some serious hoops.
4. After you register, I suggest a lock on your credit so new applications get denied. You have to manually unlock it for your own loans, so it is a little bit of a headache, but overall well worth it.