When you have a military of bank cards (like I do) and you utilize credit score monitoring providers (like I do), there’s a good likelihood that you just’ve seen a barrage of mysterious credit score monitoring alerts over the previous month.
For instance, I received this alert from Credit score Karma:
In accordance with your TransUnion credit score report, somebody added you as a licensed consumer for his or her JPMCB CARD bank card.1
Accounts that you just’re a licensed consumer on can have an effect on your credit score rating similar to a standard account, so that you’ll need to ensure you belief the first consumer of this card.
Examine in right now to see the main points of this new account.
Hmm… that’s odd. I had not, to my data, been added as a licensed consumer on any bank card lately. So I put the alert on my to-do checklist to look into additional, as any unexplained credit score monitoring alert is one thing that ought to be adopted up on – particularly in mild of the huge Equifax hack. To make issues much more regarding, Mrs. 20SF received the very same alert on the very same day.
Had we by some means had our identities hacked?
A couple of days later, I received a brand new “paid tradeline” alert from one other free credit score monitoring service, Credit score Sesame:
You may have a Paid Tradeline alert from TransUnion.
I seen that this one additionally talked about a “JPMCB CARD”. I surmised that “JPMCB” = JP Morgan Chase Financial institution. So, I made a decision that I ought to give Chase a name to see if anybody had opened new playing cards in our names.
The Chase consultant advised me that we will ignore the alerts, as they had been possible triggered by a current renaming from “Chase Financial institution” to “JP Morgan Chase Financial institution”.
Lastly, I began receiving revised consumer settlement emails from Chase that confirmed what we had been advised by the Chase consultant, because the emails began out with the next language,
Discover: Your Cardmember Settlement and related Rewards Program Settlement (if any) had been assigned to JPMorgan Chase Financial institution, N.A., as successor by merger to Chase Financial institution USA, N.A., on 05/18/2019. Moreover, starting 05/18/2019 all references to Chase Financial institution USA, N.A. in your Information to Advantages and any extra account agreements and paperwork shall be learn as JPMorgan Chase Financial institution, N.A.
Trying into each my Credit score Karma and Credit score Sesame account histories additional, it seems that no new accounts had been created with the Chase identify change (that is good – as new accounts lead to a “exhausting credit score inquiry“, as opening or closing a bank card can impression your credit score rating), and all full account histories for every card are actually displayed below “JPMCB Card Companies”, instance under.
Placing every little thing collectively, my tackle what occurred is:
- Chase formally renamed itself from “Chase Financial institution USA” to “JPMorgan Chase Financial institution”.
- This renaming set off false alarms and automatic alerts with credit score monitoring providers like Credit score Karma and Credit score Sesame.
- No new accounts had been created, so there isn’t any impression in your credit score rating.
Nothing to fret about.
I feel this little saga – and a seemingly weekly replace of one more hack – function vital reminders that we should always all be utilizing free credit score monitoring providers that may alert us of suspicious exercise.
Additionally – in the event you really feel like you may have legitimately turn out to be a sufferer of identification theft, as of 2018, free credit score freezes (and thaws) are actually out there to all People.