Identity Theft Protection – Freeze your Credit!

Unauthorized cards and loans are the leading sources of identity fraud. Crime related to fraudulent new accounts was as high as 80% of identity theft crimes reported in recent quarters.

Despite this statistic, most people have not frozen their credit. Most people wait until after a significant credit beach after the major damage has been done.

Freezing your credit is much less of a hassle than it used to be. Years ago, freezing your credit required phone calls, long hold times and keeping track of passwords that were an inch long. Freezing & unfreezing your credit was a major hassle. This all became much easier to do thanks to Federal law after the Equifax breach in 2018.

Identity theft can destroy your credit and take several months to resolve. Freezing your credit costs nothing and has very little downside. Despite the rumors, it doesn’t hurt your credit score. Employers can still run a credit check. Existing creditors can still increase your credit limit.

Yes, it will make it more of a hassle to apply for a credit card or refinance. However, making it more difficult to open accounts can also be looked at as financial discipline.

How to freeze your credit

A credit freeze blocks access to your credit reports. This protects against scammers’ attempts to access your credit reports and open fraudulent accounts. Freezing your credit is free and won’t harm your credit score.

To freeze your credit, you must go online to all three credit bureaus and request a freeze.

• Equifax
• TransUnion
• Experian

To unfreeze your credit, you would go through the reverse process.

If you need to refinance your mortgage or open a credit card you would unfreeze your credit, but only for a short period of time. Once it’s in place you have to remember to unfreeze your credit report. This means logging in to each of the credit bureaus and entering a PIN number to change when applying for new loans or credit cards,

By law, an online request to unfreeze your credit must be completed by the credit bureaus within one hour.

Credit Freeze versus Credit Lock

When freezing your credit, you will often be offered a credit lock. This is a subscription that sends you alerts when lenders make new inquiries on your credit. This is a paid subscription and is easily confused with a credit freeze which is free.

For most people the credit freeze is sufficient, combined with periodically checking your credit. Credit locks are more appropriate for someone worried about fraud in their accounts after a data breach.

A credit freeze is one way to help to prevent identity theft and fraud, even if a criminal has key information such as your Social Security number or birthdate.

We recommend freezing your credit to significantly reduce the risk of identity theft.