One of the easiest ways scammers can target your finances is by using your stolen information to open new accounts or take out lines of credit and loans in your name. published a review here.What’s Better? A Credit Lock or a Credit Freeze? Perhaps one of the password manager services would be helpful. You must retain your PIN number as it cannot be recovered if you forget it. It may take a few days for the freeze to be lifted so be sure to do it a few days in advance. This can be done online or over the phone. To lift your freeze you simply contact the bureau used by the lender and provide your PIN to lift the freeze for a certain period of time. (If you need to lift the freeze you will have to pay the same fee.) Proven identity theft victims can have this fee waived. Depending on your state, freezing your credit can cost anywhere from $0 to $10 at each bureau. I’ll try before going to bed – maybe the volume will be lower later in the evening. The Equifax website was unable to process my request. I was able to quickly & easily freeze my credit at Experion & Transunion. You can freeze your credit by using the following phone numbers and/or links: I recommend beginning with Experian and Transunion as Equifax’s website is currently receiving high traffic. You will be asked some questions to confirm your identity but it only takes a few minutes. This process can be done online or over the phone or by mail. To set up a security freeze you must contact all three of the credit bureaus individually. Unlike credit lock (offered by Transunion) credit monitoring or fraud alerts, a security freeze stops an identity theft from happening rather than alerting you to potential fraud after it has happened. I do not recommend LifeLock.Ī security freeze gives you complete control of your credit file. The same is true for LifeLock, a company that has been repeatedly fined by the government for unfair and deceptive trade practices. In essence, they tell you that you may have a credit breach problem AFTER the fact, which isn’t protection against identity theft. Instead, they recommend “credit monitoring,” a largely useless and ineffective service that charges you money to tell you when your open, or unfrozen, credit file has been accessed. Freezing your credit will give you peace of mind and is a crucial step in protecting your identity from hackers.Ĭredit bureaus rarely emphasize freezing your credit file because it’s not in their best interest, or their clients-banks and other companies that grant credit. Given the sheer volume of breaches in the past few years, it is likely your information has already been exposed. Regardless, take this time to freeze your credit. You can also wait to receive a letter from Equifax. You can see if you were a victim of Equifax’s hack by visiting /potential-impact/ and entering your last name and last six digits of your Social Security number. If you had a security freeze in place at Equifax before the hack your PIN should still be protected. (Note: As of now, Equifax does not believe that security PINs were accessed by hackers. That PIN must be used in order for anyone to access your credit file, or add new credit in your name. If you have not done so already, it is imperative that you freeze your credit immediately at each of the three credit bureaus.Ī security freeze, also called a credit freeze, locks your credit file at each bureau with a special PIN that only you know. Here’s what you should to do immediately to safeguard your information. That’s why it’s critical that you take proactive steps to protect yourself -steps that exceed the response Equifax is recommending now. While it’s true that for some time that the public’s personal information has been available for sale in the black market, no data breach as comprehensive as this one has ever occurred. adults have their credit histories on file with Equifax and the other two credit bureaus, Experian and Transunion. This is probably the most consequential data breach in history, considering that nearly all U.S. The hack exposed names, Social Security numbers, addresses, birth dates, and driver’s license numbers-all critical pieces of information used by identity thieves to impersonate people and conduct fraud. As you may have noticed by now, Credit agency Equifax announced that it suffered a data breach affecting 143 million U.S.
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