Scenario: A consumer has placed an alert on his file. He goes to BankA and requests an additional credit card. The BankA staff asks additional questions of the customer because they see the alert on the file. The customer demands to know why the staff is asking for additional information. Does the staff member say "because you have an alert on your file" or "we have the right to request additional information of you if we feel it's necessary."?

What's your opinion and what are you training staff to say if a customer questions this?

Are you talking about an alert placed on the account at BankA or a fraud alert placed on the consumer credit report? If it is the fraud alert on the credit report, a statement that a fraud alert has been placed on the credit report and we are required to obtain additional informationt to verify your identity. If it is an alert placed by the consumer on the specific account at BankA, my response would be much the same I guess. I would wonder who this consumer is or who actually placed the alert in either situation. Generally if consumer places an alert, they know it and know that they will need to give additional information because of it.

I agree with corkeygirl. Consumers are advised in the Summary of Consumer Identity Theft Rights that placing an alert may delay their ability to obtain credit. Anyone with an alert should be looking for creditors to double-check their IDs and not get irritated because they do.

Can I ask a simple question? I understand the alert is coming from the credit bureau, does your bank pull a credit report when a customer asks for an additional card or replacing a lost card in all cases?

No we do not pull a new credit right now, but once all the FACT Act regulations are completed, who knows what we will be required to do. We do have some procedures in place to alert anyone pulling a central file report for a customer that has reported that he/she is the victim of ID theft but we will probably need to put more safeguards in place in the future!! Aint the FACT Act fun!!!!!

Thank you for the response corkygirl.
I do believe the alert portion of the FACT ACT is in effect as of December 1, 2004.
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(FCRA Section 605A) Fraud and Active Duty Alerts Effective December 1, 2004. No rulemaking necessary.
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The alert placed by the consumer- according to the FACT ACT- prohibits new cards from being issued. I wasnt seeing much of any option besides acquiring a report when an additional card is requested. Any feedback on this would be Greatly appreciated!!!

"The alert placed by the consumer- according to the FACT ACT- prohibits new cards from being issued."

I don't think this is exactly true. What the Act says is that IF you obtain a report that has the alert, THEN you have to take appropriate measures to verify the person's identity before extending new credit, issuing a new card, etc. I don't think you're required to pull a credit report if that's not your normal procedure and I don't think you're prohibited from issuing a new card as long as you can reasonably establish that the person is who they say they are.