How should I monitor my credit? Lost SS card and had no history.

Question

I had no credit history and when my SS card took a tumble in the wash, it got ruined. So I applied for a new one and never got it.

They won't tell me if the card was taken to Maryland and destroyed (it's undeliverable, someone needs to answer the door to get it, and likely, no one did),but then again, the lady refused to believe that credit fraud exists ("they only use them to get employment! "Really, there's no such thing as credit theft?" "NO, IT"S FOR EMPLOYMENT ONLY!").

Since I had no credit history, none of the credit monitoring places will let me put a flag on it. How do I protect my credit from being damaged by someone else? I can't even pull up a credit report, since I had no history.

Answer 1

Before you do anything else, you need to go get a new SS card. Just explain the situation to them and they'll get you another one.

Once you get your new card, then you can deal with the credit bureaus. But you won't be able to do anything with the bureaus until you can get a SS card in order to prove that you are who you claim to be.