One of the easiest and cheapest ways to help protect yourself from identity theft is to place a credit freeze on your credit report. In fact, you can place the freeze on all of your reports even if you have not been a victim of identity theft. It can be used as both a protection and prevention.
Keeping It Tight
So what does a credit freeze do for you? In a nutshell, it restricts access to your credit report, meaning neither you, nor anyone else, can open new lines of credit while it is in place. That may sound a little extreme, however, there is some flexibility in the process. If you have a need to access your credit, you can temporarily lift the freeze to grant admission to a potential creditor or creditors.
For example, you can lift the freeze for 10 or 30 days (the length of time is up to you) while you shop for a new car loan. Plus, you can be even more precise by granting access to a specific creditor. Another good feature, is you will not have to lift or remove the freeze if you are applying for a job, renting an apartment or buying insurance.
Help Needed
One important note, the freeze is not a guarantee. You still have to regularly monitor your credit report to be sure you are protected. A good rule of thumb is to request a copy of your credit report from one of the credit bureaus every four months. Everyone gets one free annual report from each bureau, so when your spread them out over the year, you can keep an eye out for potential problems.
What to Do
To place a freeze on your credit report is easy, simply contact each of the three credit bureaus (Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion) online and request the service. This is completely FREE and you can activate, lift or remove the freeze as you need. The freeze stays in place until you change it. In addition, the action does not affect your credit report.
One Last Thing
A credit freeze is not the same as credit monitoring. Credit monitoring is a service which watches your credit report for suspicious activity and reports it back to you. This service is usually not free, unless your information has been exposed in some way by a company data breach. Depending on the company, they may offer free credit monitoring services. If you currently have credit monitoring, a credit freeze is a great tool to use in conjunction with the service.
Until Next Time♥…
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