While planning for our vacation to the beach that we took last month I blogged about some of the money saving tips and ideas I use when planning for a family vacation. What I am not sure I mentioned on this particular blog is one of the things that happened while we were there. On our first morning at the resort our housekeeping staff threw away my daughters orthodontic retainers. Not just one of them, but both. (And it's not a simple mistake to make as they are neon green and hot pink and were lying right next to the toothbrushes on the bathroom counter.) What ensued was a battle to get the hotel to admit they threw them away and reimburse us for them. I'll spare you the details but the end result is that we did get reimbursed after almost two weeks of paperwork, arguments, emails and phone calls but I also found out their procedure for "Lost and Found" items is flawed.

When filling out the initial paperwork on a lost and found item at the hotel I had to fill in my name, address, phone numbers, email address, credit card information and more. I assumed this information would be entered into their computer system at the front desk or office and the form kept under file.

Wrong.

I found out the hard way that the form is not even looked at by hotel management. That form, with my personal information including credit card numbers and email addresses, etc. goes directly to the housekeeping staff. A very transient, low paying, uneducated and more often than not at this hotel, immigrant staff. 80-100 people had/have immediate access to this information which I found out was posted up on the bulletin board.

Gulp.

Obviously, since we returned home I've kept a close watch on our credit card activity and I admit I'm not at all comfortable about this! As a matter of fact I called my credit card company to put a notice on our account that there has been a possible identity leak of my information and I was told they couldn't do it. That until it's actually used I can't put a fraud alert on my card.

This brings up a good point. Companies like LifeLock are a lifesaver in a case like this. By signing up with them they put a fraud alert on my information, they opt-out members from pre-approved offers and junk mail and limit the credit bureaus from selling my information. But apparently Experian has picked a fight with them and has told lifelock that credit laws do not provide for a third party to place fraud alerts on accounts for the consumers. ARGH. For under 10 bucks a month they will do this for me, monitor my account and take care of watching my information when I don't have the time to do this (!) and now Experian wants to stop them.

When it comes to my safety and my identity I'm all for using what works and hate that companies are only in it for the money they can make off my information.

In the mean time... I'm back to watching my account. Closely. Sigh.