Heroes in Business - Experian Identity Report with Rod Griffin, Lifes Big Moments Having Children

Episode Date: April 30, 2023

Experian Identity Report with Rod Griffin, Lifes Big Moments Having Children. Rod Griffin is the Sr Director of Public Education for Experian. Extremely valuable information for making sure you know what to do when expanding your family. Listen as David Cogan, Host of the Heroes Show and Founder of Eliances entrepreneur community. 

Up in the sky, look, it's captivating, it's energizing, it's Eliance's Heroes. Eliance's is the destination for entrepreneurs, investors, CEOs, inventors, leaders, celebrities, and startups, where our heroes in business align. Now, here's your host flying in, David Kogan, founder of Eliance's. That's right. Can it get any better? Is there any other better place to be? Whether you're watching or listening to me, the answer is no. And thank you too. Again, we always appreciate feedback from past interviews, like when I had on the co-founder of Oculus. So make sure that you go to Eliance's.com. That's E-L-I-A-N-C-S dot com, where you can also listen to past weekly identity reports with Experian.

So make sure you click on that and look for Experian. So with that, speaking of Experian, it's our weekly Experian identity report. Life's big moments having children. So welcome back, Rod Griffin, to the show. Now, Rod leads the Experience National Consumer Education Programs and works with consumer advocates and financial educators to help consumers increase their ability to understand and manage their personal finances and protect themselves from fraud and identity theft. All right, this engagement is going to be extremely valuable to all the parents who have been listening and are listening or watching today. Why? Because we're going to be discussing with you what do you need to do regarding managing identity after you have a child. So, Rod, you're the expert on this. What's the first thing that they should do?

You're the expert on this. What's the first thing that they should do? Celebrate. You'd be happy. Children are a wonderful, joyous part of life. And I know a bit about that. I have seven grandkids and three daughters. So I can tell you they are absolutely the best thing in life and probably the most expensive.

But for that reason, you need to be on top of your finances and your identity. As a new parent, your child will get a new social security number. So they are now registered as and recognized as being part of our world. So that's step one. Step two or three, I guess, after the social security number. I often have people ask me, should they get a copy of their child's credit report? And I always tell them, I hope not because they shouldn't have one. We don't create a credit report when you have a new baby, when a new child's born. You don't get a credit report until you have an account in your name. And so that usually doesn't happen until they're in their late teens, maybe early 20s. So you shouldn't have a credit report. But you might want to take steps to ensure their identity is protected. And there are some things you can do there to make

sure that you're not exposing them to fraud. Things like don't use your child's name to apply for credit. Don't use your new child's name to apply for marketing offers. You know, I've seen people with fur babies, their pets actually use their pet's names at pet stores to apply for marketing or credit cards. And now their dog has a credit report and they can't understand why. And so don't use your baby's name because you don't want that identity to be out there any more than it needs to be initially. So what other, what kind of other safeguards can we do to protect our child's identity? Sure. And, you know, there are several steps. Today, if you are concerned about your

child being a victim of fraud, you can actually have a credit report created for them. You can go to Experian.com slash fraud. There's a button you can check or a link to find out exactly how to do that and send us some information. And we can create a credit report, but then you can freeze. I don't know that's always the best thing to do because you're creating something that then, you know, there's a fear could be misused. And you have to maintain that information, potentially a PIN number to unlock or unfreeze that credit file when they become an adult in another 17 or 18 or 19 or 20 years. And if you lose the PIN or lose that information,

it can be a little bit challenging to unlock that credit report. So it may not always be the right thing. It might be better to wait until you know that there's potential fraud and then use that as a tool. We also have monitoring services for families. And so you can add your children. You can monitor your identities and theirs. And if their identity is used to attempt to apply for new credit, for example,

you would be notified right away and then you can take action. So it can be worth investing in a monitoring service for the family as well. Oh, excellent. Excellent. Now, how do we manage our child's, you know, personal information, right? For, you know, like some of the example, all the offers that are out there, sign your child up for this, get this, get that. I mean, how do we manage that? Yeah. And when you have a new baby, there are companies that want to help you find the right products for them and the best products for them. That's not all bad. You can create opportunity for yourself, right? So you can find the best products, the lowest prices. It creates competition in the marketplace. That's what we really want. The key is to,

if you're getting them in the mail, shred them. If you're getting emails, delete those emails permanently. Make sure that you're not oversharing your child's identity. There are some things like if you're on social media, be very careful about what you're sharing, the pictures you share, where you are, child's identity information, all of those sorts of things, because you can easily overshare, and that can be used by identity thieves. So be thoughtful when your child's identity is requested. Know why it's being requested, and ask if they really need it. If they don't, don't share it. I think that's the best thing you can do. Excellent. Excellent. But Rod, there is one thing they should share, and that's information about this interview,

because you're watching and listening to me, David Kogan, host of the Alliances Hero Show. Make sure that you go to Alliances.com, E-L-I-A-N-C-S.com. Click on radio and go to Experian, because we're doing weekly identity reports, because we're honored again here to have with us Rod Griffin, Senior Director of Public Education for Experian. Go to Experian.com. That's E-X-P-E-R-I-A-N.com. All right, Rod, this is, I mean, it's just amazing the information you're sharing, things that we really don't think about when we have children. So should you use, and here's a great question, your own personal information then instead of your child's? It depends on what you're doing. I mean, if it's, you know, information that makes sense, if you're going to the doctor or if you're getting new insurance or adding child to insurance,

if you're enrolling them in school where their information needs to be used, absolutely. If you're applying for new credit to purchase something for the child, use your name. You don't want to create a credit history for them or have accounts in their name when they're a newborn. Also can be problematic because they're going to look at birth date and some other information.

They're going to go, don't know why you're opening an account for a newborn or a newborn's trying to open an account. It seems a little odd. So understand what you're applying for. And if it's for you to do something for the child, use your identity and not the child's. You don't want, again, to overshare your child's identifying information. You need to protect them and you need to protect their identity until the time is right for them to make those decisions. Excellent. Well, we've got time for one more question. I think this

is very important too. Given the various tools that Experian has, what tools does Experian offer to help new parents? Yeah, so as a new parent, again, we have monitoring services for the family. You can enroll in, so you visit Experian.com or search Experian Monitoring and Family Monitoring. You can find that information. It can be a great tool if you're concerned about fraud. Check your credit reports and theirs. You can request a free report once a year for your child. Experian.com slash fraud, there's a link that says child.

I'll get it wrong, but it's due to child report request. Experian.com slash fraud. There's a link that says child. I'll get it wrong, but it's do child report request and instructions to request a child's report. Request that report. If we do not have one, we'll tell you we don't have a credit report on file. That's the right answer. That's what you want to hear. If we do have a report, we'll send it to you and then you can take steps then to put alerts on the file, freeze that file, and take the actions you need to take. Excellent. Well, again, you've been watching, listening to me, David Kogan, host of the Alliances Hero Show. Make sure that you go to alliances.com. Don't wait.

E-L-I-A-N-C-E-S.com. You'll see many others that we've interviewed. But more important, make sure that you click on and find the Experian ones because it's weekly identity reports and you've got to listen. This is going to help you because, again, Rod, it's been an honor having you on our show this week. Rod Griffin, Senior Director of Public Education for Experian. Make sure that you go to Experian dot com, E-X-P-E-R-I-A-N.com. Thank you again, Rod. Great. Thank you, David.