Safety tips for buying a new home

As you know, we recently moved to a new house and we are members LifeLock to help protect us from identify theft. With all the bank accounts and loans and shopping involved with a new house, plus new jobs and credit cards and banks, the opportunities for theft are endless. It’s certainly a time to be careful! We’ve been through the process of purchasing a home twice now and I have some tips to add to my first post.

• You know those random security questions about your first pet or childhood street? Be sure to never share those trivial details online, through social media or elsewhere, if you use them for any website log-ins! Those security questions are often found on banking sites you want to keep as secure as possible.
• With your move to a new house, do you need to switch banks? If you’re choosing a PIN number for your card, make sure the numbers are completely unrelated to something in your life–don’t use your address, numbers from your phone number, the last 4 of your social, etc. My mom once had her debit card stolen from her purse and the thief figured out her PIN number to steal money from an ATM because she used the 4 numbers on her license plate! EEK!
• Keep an eye out for your mail, especially the bills! When you move you set up mail forwarding, but things can happen. We had some of our mail sent to our old house and even to our OLD house before that one!!! Good thing we knew those owners.
• Shopping for your new house? I do a lot of browsing online, but make sure the website is secure. Check that the URL starts with “https:” instead of “http:”
• Does your move mean a search for a new job? Many applications ask for a social security number. You should never carry your social security card with you or have the number written down on paper. Memorize it!

The bottom line: protect your personal information, keep important documents locked up, and be aware. LifeLock helps monitor your accounts–we were notified every time the bank started checking into things for our new home loan–and helps to protect you from identity theft.

Don’t forget about their LifeLock for Life Sweepstakes that runs on their facebook page. You can play every week by answering 10 simple questions to get entered into some amazing giveaways. Hurry up and enter before the end of Feb for your chance at $1000 VISA or a year membership to LifeLock!

~disclosure: as a LifeLock Ambassador, I received a membership and compensation for this post.