Equifax, TransUnion, and Experian all offer account freezing for free. Take advantage of it! It is a great way to prevent someone from wrecking your credit
Equifax, TransUnion, and Experian all offer account freezing for free. Take advantage of it! It is a great way to prevent someone from wrecking your credit
We can thank US Government for FORCING these companies to allow you to freeze your credit report. It used to be a state by state thing, else you had to pay them like $10 to freeze and unfreeze, unless you had PROOF that your identity was stolen.
Especially considering Equifax had that little “oopsy” (they already leaked all your personal info) 7 years ago, you should absolutely 100% freeze your credit report.
YES you have to unfreeze it when you’re needed to check your credit, but how often does that happen?
Honestly it’s a great excuse to turn down a pushy salesman as well. “Well I really wanna buy this car, but I have to unfreeze my credit report first and my info is at home, so I’ll be back.”
And do you REALLY need that 10th credit card for get that $10 coupon for Khols? Nah.
It’s a bit of work to set up, but once you set it up don’t forget you get a free credit report yearly from each bureau. So space them out every 4 months and then check them yearly.
Have you froze it recently though? They bury the fucking options and make it as painful as possible all while trying to sell you $20 a month monitoring services. Seriously equifax? Why would I PAY your backward, half assed company money to sell AND leak my data? What the christ!
I just froze all 3 of mine and nothing was hidden. In fact everything was very obvious.
Equifax did try to make me use a lock feature instead of a freeze, but I found the freezer at my.equifax.com
The main difference between the lock and freezer is your legal recourse it seems so definitely use the freeze.
Most credit card companies provide free monthly checks to your credit so you don’t even need the yearly free checks. I just opened another line of credit and got a notification from discover 2 days later and email from them and capital one. It’s an included service that you should take advantage of.
Friendly reminder: “No” is a complete sentence. You don’t owe anyone anything.