Week 6 Day 2

After having my life relatively back together for about a year, I decided it might be time to make some kind of commitment to something. Moving into my own place seemed too drastic and I was still not sure if unsupervised freedom was a good idea so soon. Getting a car seemed expensive and came with the responsibility of registration and insurance, two things I resented and rarely maintained.

The best idea was to get a cell phone. After living on a pre-paid plan for a while, I thought a cell phone was a manageable commitment. It wasn’t such a big deal if I messed it up, as I had so many times before.

AT&T Wireless seemed like the best idea, and I heard they were the most lenient with credit requirements, something I had very good reason to worry about. I hadn’t checked my credit in, well, ever, but I knew that even if half of my failed relationships to financial institutions and serial dating of collection agencies were reported, I would be completely fucked.

My credit application was rejected and I was naturally disappointed. When I asked how much of a deposit I would have to put down, they said the problem was not my credit rating, but I already had an account.

It was possible I defaulted an account with a company AT&T had purchased, but that was years ago and I was prepared to pay the balance. But the guy said my present account was current and I had another year on my contract. I asked to see the record and sure enough, someone had used my social security number to open not just a cell phone, but several small lines of credit.

Though I had not been able to squeeze a single penny out of any financial institution for years, someone managed to use my information and obtain credit under a variation of my name.

I felt making a big deal about being the victim of fraud and identity theft would be, to say the least, hypocritical. A former thief myself, I was impressed at this person’s ability to get credit using an identity that had been raped, pillaged, and left for dead.

Truthfully, I had my suspicions about my identity being stolen a year before. This same someone with the cell phone had used my information to secure a job, something I noticed when I applied for disability in rehab. His extra income using my social security number raised my benefits, so I said nothing. But now I wanted a cell phone and I decided it was now time to speak up.

The investigation concluded that an illegal alien was using my information to secure employment, credit, and the American Dream. In the process, he not only got me additional disability benefits, but also paid all his bills on time to not arouse suspicion, subsequently raising my FICO score considerably.

I was the only person I knew whose credit record improved as the result of identity theft. After an audit, a lot of things fell off my credit report, mostly recent good stuff. Of course, I challenged every negative item on the report, and many were cleared.

Because AT&T had already granted me credit, they extended my offer to me, but this time I had to put down a deposit. I got my cell phone and decided working on my credit was too daunting. Plus, I was still not done not paying bills and saw no reason to fix something I wasn’t done breaking.

The account has been active for five years, and has only been disconnected for non-payment nine times, all within the first two years. Learning to pay bills was a slow process and it took someone sitting me down and explaining that I need to pay for services I use that I even began to make progress.

I was never one for commitment. The idea of having to do something and being tied to something sent waves of nausea though me I usually felt when I told the truth; so I made both of those things rarities.

Slowly, I am becoming used to knowing that getting the things I want requires the commitment to work for them. There is a safety in not committing to anything, but it’s a very lonely safety net that I am getting tired of.

In the past five years, I have moved four times, driven three cars, and held four different jobs in three cities, but I’ve only had one phone number. When everything around me changes, it’s nice to know that only constant in my life has been my link to the people around me.

Even if those people change too.

B