Credit Freeze:
What is it? How to do it?

 

We have followed Congress and their efforts at increasing the protections that a credit freeze delivers. Many consumer advocates agree that a solution to a lot of ID Theft is called a Credit Freeze.

Credit Freeze Ability Now Available In All States

The Big Three Credit Bureaus Announced New Policies recently (Check The State List). Simply put, the big three credit reporting companies would not be able to grant access to your credit reports until receiving confirmation and verification from you, the consumer, which allows a potential grantor to look at your files.

Currently most credit reports can be pulled by just having your Social Security Number and a partial address. More than one third of ID Theft cases are started when thieves access credit reports and open up new accounts in the victim's name. Today, when many new credit accounts are opened, a quick credit check is made prior to granting approval. The same process occurs when an ID thief wants to open up a new Visa Card in your name. If your credit reports were frozen and additional verifications were needed to "open" or "unfreeze" your credit history, thieves would be less inclined to try to defraud consumers.

In 2009, consumers in all 50 states will be able to freeze access to their credit files at all three major credit bureaus to prevent identity thieves from opening fraudulent accounts in their names. All three major credit bureaus have announced that they will make "security freeze" protection available in the eleven states that have not passed laws requiring it or that have limited this protection to identity theft victims.

Yes, It Costs!  There are three major credit reporting companies and you should think about freezing all three. On average, each reporting company may charge $10 to freeze your reports and a small fee to "thaw" the reports. The credit bureaus will give you a PIN number. You can then dial into an automated phone system and choose to do a temporary lift of the freeze. This gives you the ability to control access when they want to make a credit purchase.