Thoughts on credit freeze

[cmyx6go]

With all the nonsense with identity theft and fraud going on, I'm seriously considering putting a freeze on my credit. Has anyone done this? Are there any downsides? It seems straight forward. I can put on freeze on the three credit agencies and should I need to apply for credit, I can temporarily remove the freeze.

I'd appreciate any thoughts or experiences.

[DocL]

I had to do that because I was the victim of identity theft about 10 years ago. It was a royal pain in the ass to have to call the credit card everytime I wanted to make a big purchase. But it was necessary for about a year before I felt safe again.

[cmyx6go]

Originally Posted by DocL

I had to do that because I was the victim of identity theft about 10 years ago. It was a royal pain in the ass to have to call the credit card everytime I wanted to make a big purchase. But it was necessary for about a year before I felt safe again.

Are we talking two different things? I'm talking about the credit bureaus not releasing my credit report to inquiries.

[Marmugmotleocay]

I locked 2 reports down and froze the other one. The 2 bureaus have an ap that I can lock and unlock at anytime. The other 1 had to be froze because they want you to pay monthly to lock.

[nerdogray]

Originally Posted by cmyx6go

With all the nonsense with identity theft and fraud going on, I'm seriously considering putting a freeze on my credit. Has anyone done this? Are there any downsides? It seems straight forward. I can put on freeze on the three credit agencies and should I need to apply for credit, I can temporarily remove the freeze.

I'd appreciate any thoughts or experiences.

I put security freezes up at all bureaus, including Innovis which no one ever uses, quite a few years ago. It's exactly as you describe. Any time you have someone wanting to check credit, you just log on to the bureau they're checking against and drop the freeze temporarily. Equifax and Transunion used to be cumbersome, but now all three bureaus have a "freeze management" page that are very easy to navigate. It costs a small amount to do the freezes (or at least it did when I went through it), but after that it's done. To me, the positives well-outweigh the only negative of slight inconvenience.

I don't do any locks, which I never really understood the point beyond making the bureaus more money. If your file is frozen, it's not accessible. Why lock it, too? Just did a quick refresh on it, and the comparison made it sound like that locks were faster to process when needing to allow someone access. I've never had a "thaw" take more than a few minutes to take effect. Also looks like Experian is the one that charges, so I'm still kind of confused by them.

Ok, I still wasn't satisfied so read more. Found someone else with same question who had this to say:

"I dug deeper and it appears the answer to my question is that a Credit Freeze has legal guarantees under federal law, so if fraud occurs, I would have the right to sue the credit bureaus. However, a Credit Lock doesn't provide any such legal protection."

Also, you can re-lock your file much faster than waiting for your file to re-freeze, which is 24 hours at all bureaus. Looks like they prefer locking for liability purposes.

[RickFLM4]

I froze my credit with all 3 major credit bureaus following identity theft. Pretty easy process to freeze and temp unfreeze and personally I don't apply for credit often, so pretty minor inconvenience. I know it works because a couple of times a year, I receive letters from credit card companies or banks telling me they were unable to open an account in my name because they could not access my credit report. I recommend doing it.

[RickFLM4]

Originally Posted by Marmugmotleocay

I locked 2 reports down and froze the other one. The 2 bureaus have an ap that I can lock and unlock at anytime. The other 1 had to be froze because they want you to pay monthly to lock.

What do you mean by "lock" and how does it differ from freezing?

[Marmugmotleocay]

The locks with TransUnion and Equifax are FREE. The Experian freeze is also FREE. The Experian lock cost money.

[Marmugmotleocay]

Originally Posted by RickFLM4

What do you mean by "lock" and how does it differ from freezing?

I believe they are basically the same thing. Nobody can pull your credit.
The lock I can just press a button on the ap and unlock for my credit to be pulled and tap it again to relock.
The freeze I need to call the bureau with a special number to have it unfrozen. The lock is far easier.

[Marmugmotleocay]

The funny thing is Experian( Frozen report ) is always sending me new offers for credit cards. Then if I was to get one they would change my score. It just seems really odd.

[DocL]

Originally Posted by cmyx6go

Are we talking two different things? I'm talking about the credit bureaus not releasing my credit report to inquiries.

I locked down everything, no credit inquires, and did everything the police said to do. It was a while ago so I don't remeber the specifics. But even applying for a Macy's card to get 0% interest for a new bed was a PITA. But it was what had to be done in my instance. HTH.

[cmyx6go]

Originally Posted by RickFLM4

What do you mean by "lock" and how does it differ from freezing?

I found this.
https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/f...-credit-freeze

[Alfisti]

With your absolutely cockamaimie financial system down there i'd be VERY careful about fucking up your credit history.

[shawnhayes]

Originally Posted by Alfisti

With your absolutely cockamaimie financial system down there i'd be VERY careful about fucking up your credit history.

Nope.

An identity theft with freezes on my credit report made my score go UP. NO, I AM NOT KIDDING. When you are actively involved with your credit agencies (signed up, locking and unlocking your credit) they give you points because you CARE.

Shawn

[Alfisti]

I dunno the specifics, i just know you make one wrong move and you're fucked for years. This obsession with credit rating is just insane.

[antgenn]

I had it frozen with all 3 following personal data leak from my former employer. No hassle at all, unlocked it twice for buying a car and opening new CC. Both times gave permission to run a report for 24 hours and it was frozen again automatically. Feel much more secure that way.

[dreamingat30fps]

Originally Posted by Alfisti

I dunno the specifics, i just know you make one wrong move and you're fucked for years. This obsession with credit rating is just insane.

I never look at my credit score. Had a short sale back during the 2008 real estate crash. Open and close accounts and cards as needed. Never had any issues and my credit score is pretty good. I only know this because whenever I do finance something they show you what your score is.

Never thought about a freeze, but might look into it. No plans to be financing or opening any new credit lines for a while. Especially with these interest rates.

[cmyx6go]

Originally Posted by Alfisti

With your absolutely cockamaimie financial system down there i'd be VERY careful about fucking up your credit history.

Which is exactly why I did this. My credit is exceptional and I'd like to keep it that way. I got a letter in the mail from a company I'd never heard of. They have something to do with medical tests. It said that due to a ransomware attack, my info is out there.

All done - I'm frozen

[rcracin]

Originally Posted by cmyx6go

Which is exactly why I did this. My credit is exceptional and I'd like to keep it that way. I got a letter in the mail from a company I'd never heard of. They have something to do with medical tests. It said that due to a ransomware attack, my info is out there.

All done - I'm frozen

Got the same letter. I’m assuming my doctor’s office gave the Lab company my information. I find that to be shady practice. Been thinking the same thing - to freeze.

[cmyx6go]

Originally Posted by rcracin

Got the same letter. I’m assuming my doctor’s office gave the Lab company my information. I find that to be shady practice. Been thinking the same thing - to freeze.

I never put my social security number on paperwork at the doctors office. They don't need it. I'm giving them my medical insurance card. I'm guessing somehow that info gets transmitted from the insurance to the lab. I hate how much info is out there.

[RickFLM4]

Originally Posted by cmyx6go

I never put my social security number on paperwork at the doctors office. They don't need it. I'm giving them my medical insurance card. I'm guessing somehow that info gets transmitted from the insurance to the lab. I hate how much info is out there.

Speaking of doctors, even with HIPAA I feel like they are the worst of the worst. It seems like every time I go, they are implementing a new system and need my information all over again. Every doctor. And they never know what happened to the information they had, which makes me wonder how careful they are with it. Maybe they should go back to paper.

[DETRoadster]

cmyx6go , my wife and I froze ours about 5 years ago and sleep great at night because of it. We dont have to pay for a bunch of monitoring BS. We just locked that shit down. Its not like you (or us) are in our 20s trying to open up credit cards, get a new iPhone on a payment plan, or anything else like that. I'll bet like us you only open a new line of credit every 3 to 5 years at most.

Since locking ours down we have had to "unfreeze" a couple times. Once for a HELOC, and once to get quotes for construction loans. My wife unfroze hers recently to change over to a different credit card for her business. The bureaus make it pretty easy actually. Takes us about 30 minutes of work to unfreeze both our accounts across 4 bureaus. The nice thing is that every bureau offers a "temporary" unfreeze where you can pick the start and stop dates so it will automatically re-freeze itself after the date you pick.

Looks like you went for it. You wont regret it!