Has this ever happened to you? You notice a $5,000 charge from Saks Fifth Avenue on your credit card bill. A couple of weeks after it arrived, you look at your bank statement and notice some checks written on your savings account (your savings account, not your checking account). If not, count yourself fortunate. But in addition to good fortune, there are some no cost actions you can take to increase the protection you have against thieves who try to steal from you by fraudulent activity on your credit cards, checking account, savings account, or by opening accounts in your name.

The best way to protect yourself is to put as many preventive measures in place as you can. To protect yourself from credit card fraud, consider starting with your own credit card company. Many of them will actually put alerts on your account as part of their overall service. You can agree with them to have charges rejected or put on pending status until they can contact you to verify transactions that for example, exceed a certain dollar amount or that are occurring outside of your state. Remember that if you use geography alerts, let the credit card company know if you're going to be traveling out of the state or country so that you don't find yourself in a foreign country without the use of your credit card.

Your credit card company may also offer a service either directly or through another company to insure all of your credit cards and not just the one you have with them. You're essentially buying insurance so expect monthly fees or premiums.

Banks also offer this service in association with a subsidiary or third party, so you might also want to contact your own bank regarding insuring your credit cards. Many banks also offer alerts on all of your accounts including checking and savings accounts to notify you among other things, if there's been transactions of a certain type or above dollar amounts you set, or if contact information has been changed.

Keep in mind these tips try to give you protection from someone using existing accounts that you have validly opened.

For protection of your current accounts, and to be alerted if someone has opened accounts in your name that were never authorized by you, take advantage of the federally mandated free credit reports you are entitled to. You may request one credit report from each of the three main credit reporting agencies every 12 months. The agencies are Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. Sometimes derogatory credit information is only reported to one agency and not all three. This is where you'll see if someone obtained your personal information and opened fraudulent accounts in your name. Sometimes all it takes is your name, address and birth date to open an account in your name and to have credit information added to your credit report. Sometimes identity thieves obtain your name and social security number and can open accounts in your name. You may also view your report more often. There will just be a fee associated with that.