Setting up fraud alerts on your credit reports only takes a few minutes. They can protect your identity and your money.

A credit fraud alert is a notice sent to a credit reporting bureau that a consumer’s identity may have been stolen, and a request for new credit in that consumer’s name may not be legitimate.

Fraud alerts and credit freezes can help protect your credit and your credit score, but there’s a good chance one of these options will work better for you than the other.

Fraud alerts last for 90 days, although victims of identity theft have the option to place an extended fraud alert on their credit report that will last for seven years.

Fraud alert. You can put a fraud alert on your credit report for one year if you suspect you've experienced identity fraud. When the year is over, you can renew the alert.

Fraud alerts require extra scrutiny on credit applications. Freezes are meant to keep new credit from being opened. Many, or all, of the products featured on this page are from our advertising ...

With that in mind, here's what you need to do if you want to set up a fraud alert on your credit report: 1. Choose one of the three credit bureaus -- Equifax, Experian, or TransUnion. 2.

The rate of credit card fraud alerts is rising, according to Deloitte, often inconveniencing consumers. New shopping patterns, spending on big-ticket items, and lack of use of monitoring services ...

Fraud alerts help people quickly identify bogus charges and remedy cases of stolen credit card information. This is especially useful for those who don’t regularly check credit card statements.

I placed fraud alerts on my credit reports with all three of the major credit reporting bureaus, and it only took about 10 minutes. Here's how you can, too. What can a fraud alert do?

Fraud alerts and credit freezes are two free tools to protect your financial data from fraud. We explain the differences so you can decide which makes sense for you.

The rate of credit card fraud alerts is rising, according to Deloitte, often inconveniencing consumers. New shopping patterns, spending on big-ticket items, and lack of use of monitoring services ...