I know my mom has been applying for credit cards with no idea of how she would pay them off. I think she's been denied for every one, but obviously she's been giving her SSN to God knows who. I have an ID manager through Farmer's insurance that I use to monitor stuff like this and there's been SEVERAL credit inquiries on my mom's side but now I see one for my dad. I know he's not been applying, and I'm worried my mom might be using his info.
How's she accessing the applications, do you know?
Has anyone suggested any strategies to tackle her spending issues? - I assume there's no material need there, anything she's actually short of or asking for. It's just having the credit that she's hooked on?
Credit companies are being very very careful issuing cards now. Even when they do, they’ll give a credit limit of a few hundred dollars. A few even insist on their yearly fee being paid up front, and the annual fee is a high one.
Be kind but firm with your mother and tell her if she needs a day out to “fun shop” you can go together, but she needs to stop putting her personal info out there and explain to her why.
And my parents didn't even know I did this. My Dad use to give out credit information who whomever called... yikes!! If for some reason they needed their credit viewed via the credit bureau, one can unfreeze the info for a week or whatever, then it automatically goes back to being frozen.
If your Mom complains she can't get such and such credit card, or whatever she is trying to purchase on credit, just tell her she is maxed out and just cannot get any more cards. You can use "therapeutic fibs" for situations such as this.
This is just an idea, but as the child of a shopaholic I wonder - could you soothe your mother's cravings with paper catalogues, see if that helps keep her offline? She can even fill the order forms in and you can 'disappear' them discreetly into a 'pending' tray.
You might think there aren't so many of them around any more, but once your name's on somebody's mailing list there's no stopping them, I've found. I've registered with mail preference services and still get two a day.