Accounts choice and identity theft

Fred

Howdy,
I am currently with one bank only for isa, savings, investments, mortgage - the lot. Whilst a certain amount of laziness may play in, the main reason for this is my respect for identity theft. I wish I had the courage to have my ISA here, my savings there, my mortgage over there and my investments somewhere else, but what if something goes wrong? Clearing my credit record through one company must be easier than going through the clearing with say five different banks/bs. I find that this is never ever discussed - tips to avoid identity theft usually include don't shop online, don't bank online - rubbish in my opinion, but they never ever discuss the likelyhood of fraud in various real life situations. Yes I am shredding everything, I guard my identity as much as possible and I am generally very careful about things. Am I taking this too far?
Fred

Ember999

Fred wrote:

Howdy,
I am currently with one bank only for isa, savings, investments, mortgage - the lot. Whilst a certain amount of laziness may play in, the main reason for this is my respect for identity theft. I wish I had the courage to have my ISA here, my savings there, my mortgage over there and my investments somewhere else, but what if something goes wrong? Clearing my credit record through one company must be easier than going through the clearing with say five different banks/bs. I find that this is never ever discussed - tips to avoid identity theft usually include don't shop online, don't bank online - rubbish in my opinion, but they never ever discuss the likelyhood of fraud in various real life situations. Yes I am shredding everything, I guard my identity as much as possible and I am generally very careful about things. Am I taking this too far?
Fred

I think so yes hon. I have never been a victim of identity fraud and I have banked online with 3 seperate banks for over 6 years, I have accounts all over the place, everything with different providers etc. I have always shredded my mail (for past 10 years, before Identity Theft became a major problem - I just take 'security' seriously, always have!) and do what I can to protect my monies etc. but you have to get on with life and take the best products for you to make money. Don't spend your life being paranoid, the chances of it happening to you are slim at best if you are careful and always shred your stuff etc.

Ember xx

masonic

Maybe I'm missing the point here, but if you're a victim of identity theft, won't you still have to deal with all the companies that the fraudster has obtained credit from in your name? Perhaps I'm mistaken, but I thought that you wouldn't have to worry about your 'genuine' accounts as you would still be in control of those and they wouldn't be chasing you for money. If, on the other hand you are talking about someone gaining access to one of your accounts, then I would have thought it would be better to spread your money around, as then you would not lose it all.

KTF

It could be argued that keeping all your accounts in one place is worse than having them scattered about because if they get your details then they have access to everything.

That said, I also have multiple accounts in multiple places and dont lose any sleep over it. The chances of it actually happening is almost not worth worrying about.

timesphere

I think that there is a certain amount of confusion here as two totally different things are being discuss

1 Identity theft, this is when someone pretends to be you and gets a loan or a credit card in your name

2 Account Hijacking, this is when someone takes control of your account by getting your card and pin number, or online through getting your login details and passwords

I agree with the previous replies, if you use common sense you can minimise both of these happening

It's not worth losing sleep over !

cattie

Not quite on topic but the thing to consider with having all your savings & investments with one bank is that there is a ceiling to the amount of liability should the bank hit trouble. I believe it's in the region of £30000 so savings above this amount should not be kept in just one institution.

The collapse of Baring's bank made many people aware of the advisability of not keeping all your eggs in one basket.