For the first time in 15+ years of applying for credit cards, I’ve finally taken the action of freezing my credit (also sometimes known as a security freeze). Let me explain why, and then I’ll talk about the actual process of doing so.
Continue reading: Should You Freeze Your Credit? If So, How?
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
Yes. I have mine frozen for over 20 years and never had problems getting new mortgage or credit cards.
I didn’t freeze my credit, but I did put on a fraud alert several years ago after receiving a credit card I didn’t apply for. The nice thing about the fraud alert is that if I apply for credit I need not do anything proactively, but the credit issuer contacts me and verifies the application before approval.
Pro tip: Freeze the credit reports of your children.
Their credit identity can be "stolen" too.
I didn't do it until they were teens, so I'm not sure how early you *can* do it.
If the credit bureau is compromised, everything is compromised.
This is solving the regulator's wrong problem for an obsolete system.
Having your entire life depending on a 9 digit number system invented almost a 100 years ago design to track welfare payment caused by the Great Depression.
When you unfreeze your credit, you can select a time for the bureau to automatically refreeze, so that you don’t have to go back again and do it yourself. That way, unfreezing/refreezing is a one step process (for each bureau).
It’s so much easier than it used to be.
The system you call obsolete is the envy of most of the rest of the world. Before coming to America I could only dream of having such an easy and centrally managed access to credit.. And by a long shot the best credit cards in the whole world. If anything needs to be fixed is the ease of getting a SSN, which foreigners then can use to access so easily the privilege and way of living of Americans, while at the same time talking shit of the USA (while proudly flashing their lucrative Amex Platinums).
Interesting, thanks! Just as a ”fun” fact - in Sweden, their equivalent of a SSN is public knowledge and you can either look it up online within a matter of minutes, or just call the government and ask (”hi, I just want to know the full SSN, full name, full address and taxed income of individual X”). And there is also no way of freezing your credit. You’re basically screwed if someone wants to steal your identity.
We've always had freezes for both ourselves and our kids, and now that the kids are of legal age, they're handling their own freezes. One issue we've run into though -- unfreezing TransUnion has been a big pain, with the website erroring out and requiring a call to talk to a human being.
If a card app goes into “review,” should you unfreeze your credit until finally approved?
Really annoying playing phone tag with a card issuer trying to verify info on an app. I’ve even had card applications expire & fall thru the cracks with alerts. Now that I know you can pre-set a freeze, probably the better route.
I froze mine about 10 years ago after I received a letter telling me I'd been declined for a gas card. Only I hadn't applied for one. Score 800+. Very strange. No problems since.
Freezing the three credit bureau reports is a fail safe system and keeps your identity safe even if your data falls on the “dark web” since the freeze doesn’t allow an account being opened.
The added benefit is that it also protects your SS account as well. When you setup online access to your SS account they do a “soft inquiry” to validate who you are. So, you get an added layer of protection so some low life POS can’t mess with your SS benefits.
It's nice that it's gotten so easy to freeze and unfreeze. Used to be a bit of a hassle, but now you can unfreeze all three bureaus in less than 10 minutes. Well worth the small extra effort for the security. Sorry someone messing with you turned you on to this, but it's probably for the best.
Well those are certainly all words.
No, foreigners do not have easy access to "the privilege and way of living of Americans".
The US has the most lucrative point system purely because - unlike in the rest of the world - merchant fees are unregulated.
Fraud alert is extra peace-of-mind. Yes there can be a bit of phone tag with applications once an alert is in place but lenders are doing due diligence verifying you in fact did apply, which is exactly what you want to occur when there's concern an unauthorized parties may be using your info.
My concern is the safety of this situation. You do this online with your user name and password. That could also be hacked.
Eskimo is correct about issues with a 9 digit SSN. There is no check digit so any 9-digit string should be a valid number (unlike credit card numbers which have an encoded check digit). Also 9 digits give you 999,999,999 possible SSNs, What's the population of the US? And those 9 digit strings are used for a number of there IDs -- eg EINs for employers.
And credit cards have how many digits? Wonder why they use so many:-)
Ben,
You lost your "private citizen" status by hosting a web page for several years now. You have raised your status to "celebrity" and are now a high profile target of fraudsters and con artist. Now is the time to place credit freezes and other security procedures on your accounts while you have the advantage.
Another item to note is that your compadre on LALF has a tendency to post pictures of his passport and visa applications on his blog which is a big no-no. Exact spelling of a name and places of birth are the foundation of fraud. The same thing happens when AB&B wants an image of your drivers license. You just gave away very rudimentary info which can be used to compromise your credit.
About 17 or 18 years for me. It was a pain initially because the bureaus charged for it and did everything they possibly could to make it difficult to freeze and unfreeze. But the legistlation that followed the Equifax breech a few years ago changed that, and now it's both free and easy to freeze/unfreeze online.
A card app won't be approved if your credit report is frozen at the bureau the card issuer uses. You have to unfreeze it before you apply. If you don't, the issuer will either just reject your application or ask you to unfreeze. You should keep it unfrozen until you get a decision or they pull the report, whichever comes first.
You and many others here get the whole "credit freeze" all wrong.
It is not a fail safe system. It's a just another hurdle these hackers need to overcome.
You are your mother's maiden name away from any account, including the credit bureau's account.
Thanks to 23 and me and so many goodies on the "dark web". That's easy.
The fail safe is to redesign the whole system with an actual fail safe.
Like I posted earlier, it's an obsolete system. Either you're smart enough to understand why or not.
Love to hear more from you once you're a victim of identity theft. Since you can't even distinguish between SSN system and credit scoring system, there is little left to explain that you would understand.
I would like to add a few things.
The check digit itself is useless, it's just to detect error and easily defeated in 10 tries.
What you are looking for is check sum where the whole set is validated.
Like credit cards, SSN also has a very predictable system.
This is all public information that most public is too stupid to even care
Your first 3 digits are not random up until a little over a decade ago. Yes around Obama, years after more than 100 million customer got hacked off TJ Maxx.
The middle 2 also follows a sequence. The last 4 can be found too easy from numerous hacks.
Now rather than randoming a billion number, with a few more data, thiefs can be randoming only a dozen number.
it's an obsolete system. Either you're smart enough to understand why or not.
It’s the best thing I ever did to safeguard my identity and my credit. And as your article stated, it is easy to freeze and unfreeze. if you’re going to apply for a credit card unfreeze the day before and close it back up a day or two later.
All the comments to the contrary... I had a freeze at all three credit reporting agencies, flew to a city 1,000 miles away, bought a $50k car at a new car dealer finance 100%, and didn't get so much as a text alerting me to the activity. Yes, two of the three showed a pull that day.