 TITLE: What Is an Extended Fraud Alert? CONTENT: Does an Extended Fraud Alert Affect Your Credit?\n------------------------------------------------\nThe presence or absence of an extended fraud alert on your credit report has no effect at all on your credit scores or credit standing. But because fraud alerts ask creditors to verify your identity, they can sometimes hinder your ability to be instantly approved for a new credit account at, say, a retail store counter.\nA fraud alert does not affect the likelihood that you'll qualify for a loan or credit, but it can complicate the automated approval process these instant-approval credit or financing offers rely on. If you have a credit alert in place and wish to get approval for such offers, you might need to contact the company to find out how you can apply since you may not be able to get instant credit.\nWhile it may not be possible for lenders to process instant credit applications with a security alert on your report, having an alert won't prevent lenders from approving other types of credit once they are able to verify your identity. And the extra security a fraud alert provides can prevent an identity thief from succeeding in opening new credit accounts in your name. When a criminal secures a loan or credit card account in your name, they'll typically use the funds and then vanish without making any payments. This can lead to negative entries on your credit report and, as a result, lower credit scores. You can get fraudulent entries removed from your credit history by filing disputes with the national credit bureaus. END