I received a letter yesterday that included,
Thank you for applying for a SaksFirst credit card account issued by Capital One, N.A. Unfortunately, we are unable to approve your application at this time. To obtain specific information about this decision, please write to us at Capital One, N.A., P.O. Box 98708, Las Vegas, NV 89193-8708 or call us at 1-601-592-5954 within 60 days of your receipt of this letter. We will send you a written statement of the specific reasons for denial within 30 days of receiving your request.
Sincerely,
Capital One
Customer Care Team
I was glad they didn’t approve it, since I didn’t make the application. Sigh!
So I looked into credit freezes vs. fraud alerts. Apparently a fraud alert is good for one year and contacting one of the credit bureaus is enough to have the alert put on all three. Before a credit card could be issued the company would have to phone me to verify that I had applied.
I would have to contact all three credit bureaus to freeze my credit, and then again if I wanted to unfreeze it. Getting the fraud alert took me long enough, so I’ll settle for that, for now at least.
Have you ever used either a fraud alert or a credit freeze?
June 5, 2020
It is sort of scary…I have not used a fraud alert. I have had charges to my card that was not mine and had to get a new card.
The credit card companies are very good about that. All we have to do is check our statements. The thing that bothered me about this one is I couldn’t find out if it was something to be concerned about. Equifax was the credit reporting company involved and I couldn’t get to talk to a person about it, and the same thing with the Capital One phone number in the letter…the automated system would only say if I wanted they would send me a letter saying why they refused the application. So I went to the government site about credit freezes and fraud alerts and it sounded as if the fraud alert was enough protection.
I get them all the time on cards I’ve never had. I’ve just ignored them, knowing they were spam and scams. It there a reason why I shouldn’t be doing that?
Apparently ignoring them is safe. I’m a bit paranoid because I had a security clearance years ago and a few years ago my personal data was stolen from the organization that had collected it. That data is now floating around on the internet, so I’m super careful. It’s annoying but funny…so much for security. 😀
I’ve deciding that ignoring them is the best thing to do.
Oh my goodness! We have not had this happen, but we did have someone get our credit card number and charge things in another state. It seems to be everywhere!
That’s happened to us about three times over the years, but the credit card companies have always been good about not charging us. I think they do replace our cards so we have a new number.
We have a freeze on all of the major credit reporting companies. If we need to apply for a car loan or lease, or IF we wanted a new credit card, it is simply a matter of lifting the freeze for a short period of time. I think it can be done online and there is a $5 fee. We have to use it whenever we get a new car, so fairly infrequently. We have more than enough credit cards. It’s worth it in our opinion.
I’m guessing it’s easier now because of the internet. Apparently the new rule is they can’t charge us for either the freezing or unfreezing.
I get things in the mail all the time from credit card companies telling me I’m pre-approved. I don’t even bother opening them any more. Maybe I should just in case it’s not the typical letter.
This envelope was unmarked so it didn’t look like it was from a pre-approved card. And maybe Misadventures is right, that it could have been safely ignored.
After looking into it, I think you’re better off just ignoring letters like that.
Yes.
🙂
that’s a new one to me….we’re always getting approved for cards we neither applied for nor want. i would hate to think that the scam business has branched out to the mail as well as the internet.
I thought the letter was legitimate and that someone had tried to get a credit card in my name. My credit monitoring company said
That seems to be a legitimate Saks phone number. Some people think the phone number in the letter is a scam, others think it’s legitimate, so I’m confused.
It’s a phishing expedition. Even the phone number, 601-592-5954, is sketchy. On one website, “Around 100% of people reported it as ‘Scam’. (or 16 out of 16)
At another site most people said it was a scam, and referred to the Saks letter, a couple of others said they phoned the Saks credit department and they said the phone number was legitimate. I phoned the number and didn’t leave personal information except my phone number, which any scammer would already know since they know my address and we’re in the white pages. But I learned a lesson — it was dumb to use that number. If I wanted to contact Saks, look up the number myself.
Thanks for the warning. I was obviously making an assumption that the letter was legitimate and someone was trying to apply in my name. Not a good thing to assume! It didn’t make sense to apply in my name and address, because they would have to get the card to be able to know its number and use it. Again, thank you.
Uh-oh!!! Reminds me of the e-notice we got a short while ago, about a purchase being declined on our card because it looked suspicious. Yep, it was “suspicious” alright… we didn’t try to make the purchase! The account was closed, a new card issued, and all that jazz. A hassle to be sure. I’m glad this incident with you didn’t go any further than it did. How scary! Love, Andrea xoxo
It gives me a lot of confidence in the credit card company when they catch things like that. Our company used to want to know when we went on vacation and would be using the card in a different city. The last time I contacted them they didn’t care, which bothered me. But apparently their fraud department does try to find the thieves.