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Freezing doesn't protect the information, but it does protect your credit account from being added to. Once frozen, you are almost in a 2FA scenario where credi

Freezing doesn't protect the information, but it does protect your credit account from being added to. Once frozen, you are almost in a 2FA scenario where creditors are required to request any new accounts or credit hits, and the credit agency is required to then obtain your approval using the private information only you (should) know.

Exuma 9y ago
So how should I protect myself other than monitoring my credit using creditkarma? What do people do who have millions of dollars, theres nothing else other than just pray?
- ubernostrum 9y ago
  You freeze. It sucks that it's the only option, but it's the only option right now. The only way someone can open a new bank account, credit card or loan in your name under the freeze is if they A) have the credit-bureau-specific PIN to lift the freeze, or B) the account was somehow opened without doing any kind of credit check.
patio11 9y ago
Freezing doesn't protect the information, but it does protect your credit account from being added to. Going to take the liberty of adding to this because the imprecision might cause some people to develop a poor model of how financial institutions work: you don't have a "credit account." You have a few firms which have partial views of your "credit history", sourced by reports from some firms you've previously done business with before. What a freeze does is that those firms (CRAs) who could disclose your credit history to a bank will, instead, report to the bank "That file is frozen." How is this different from your mental model? Because credit decision is between a financial institution and a bank -- they don't have to ask anyone else's permission, including the CRA, to lend you money. They also don't have to "respect" a freeze on your file; it's purely advisory. It may deter _some_ banks from issuing you _some_ credit but it will likely not deter _all_ banks from issuing you _all_ credit products.
- sillysaurus3 9y ago
  I'm curious: say you freeze your credit and then take an action that should negatively affect your credit, e.g. skip out on paying a doctor. What happens? That's nearly identical to what a fraudster might do, except there is no fraudster. How does the system differentiate between someone showing up and doing something in your name vs you actually showing up and doing something negative?
  - pwg 9y ago
    It works because nearly every institution that would "extend credit" relies on the reports from these agencies to decide to do so. So when they try to pull a report (for you or a fraudster) they get back "sorry, frozen" and that causes them to actually stop and try to actually verify the true identity of the person requesting the loan. If that is you (the proper owner) then you can 'unfreeze' for the purpose of obtaining the loan. If that is a fraudster, they will likely not have your pin's to do the unfreeze, so the bank/business says "no" to the request for money. [edit: spelling]
    - sillysaurus3 9y ago
      I suppose a doctor's office and the dentist are two of the rare exceptions. I can't think of any others. (They generally don't ask for payments till the end.)
  - patio11 9y ago
    Freezing credit is not a write lock. It is a read pseudolock. Writes against the CRA succeed as normal.
r00fus 9y ago
That the credit agencies are allowed to charge you $10 (each - that's 3 + 1 smaller one) both for freezing and unfreezing your credit make me wonder if this leak was had an ahem unintended side effect of increasing revenues due to this activity. 143M accounts - lets just say 2% are rich/active enough to consider freezes. That's almost $3M over the course of say a week - for each such agency.
- pwg 9y ago
  Which is why you (if you are a US citizen) should look up your congress critter's contact info and send all three of them a message that given this breach, they need to make freezes/unfreezes 100% free for everyone, for ever. If enough folks write their congress critters asking for "make freeze/unfreezing free of change to everyone", maybe they will do something useful for once.
petilon 9y ago
Using the information leaked from Equifax, hackers can lift your freeze. All they need to know is your address, SSN and Date of Birth. See: https://www.experian.com/ncaconline/freezepin https://www.experian.com/ncaconline/freezepin

Exuma 9y ago

So how should I protect myself other than monitoring my credit using creditkarma? What do people do who have millions of dollars, theres nothing else other than just pray?

ubernostrum 9y ago
You freeze. It sucks that it's the only option, but it's the only option right now. The only way someone can open a new bank account, credit card or loan in your name under the freeze is if they A) have the credit-bureau-specific PIN to lift the freeze, or B) the account was somehow opened without doing any kind of credit check.

patio11 9y ago

Freezing doesn't protect the information, but it does protect your credit account from being added to. Going to take the liberty of adding to this because the imprecision might cause some people to develop a poor model of how financial institutions work: you don't have a "credit account." You have a few firms which have partial views of your "credit history", sourced by reports from some firms you've previously done business with before. What a freeze does is that those firms (CRAs) who could disclose your credit history to a bank will, instead, report to the bank "That file is frozen." How is this different from your mental model? Because credit decision is between a financial institution and a bank -- they don't have to ask anyone else's permission, including the CRA, to lend you money. They also don't have to "respect" a freeze on your file; it's purely advisory. It may deter _some_ banks from issuing you _some_ credit but it will likely not deter _all_ banks from issuing you _all_ credit products.

sillysaurus3 9y ago
I'm curious: say you freeze your credit and then take an action that should negatively affect your credit, e.g. skip out on paying a doctor. What happens? That's nearly identical to what a fraudster might do, except there is no fraudster. How does the system differentiate between someone showing up and doing something in your name vs you actually showing up and doing something negative?
- pwg 9y ago
  It works because nearly every institution that would "extend credit" relies on the reports from these agencies to decide to do so. So when they try to pull a report (for you or a fraudster) they get back "sorry, frozen" and that causes them to actually stop and try to actually verify the true identity of the person requesting the loan. If that is you (the proper owner) then you can 'unfreeze' for the purpose of obtaining the loan. If that is a fraudster, they will likely not have your pin's to do the unfreeze, so the bank/business says "no" to the request for money. [edit: spelling]
  - sillysaurus3 9y ago
    I suppose a doctor's office and the dentist are two of the rare exceptions. I can't think of any others. (They generally don't ask for payments till the end.)
- patio11 9y ago
  Freezing credit is not a write lock. It is a read pseudolock. Writes against the CRA succeed as normal.

r00fus 9y ago

That the credit agencies are allowed to charge you $10 (each - that's 3 + 1 smaller one) both for freezing and unfreezing your credit make me wonder if this leak was had an ahem unintended side effect of increasing revenues due to this activity. 143M accounts - lets just say 2% are rich/active enough to consider freezes. That's almost $3M over the course of say a week - for each such agency.

pwg 9y ago
Which is why you (if you are a US citizen) should look up your congress critter's contact info and send all three of them a message that given this breach, they need to make freezes/unfreezes 100% free for everyone, for ever. If enough folks write their congress critters asking for "make freeze/unfreezing free of change to everyone", maybe they will do something useful for once.

petilon 9y ago

Using the information leaked from Equifax, hackers can lift your freeze. All they need to know is your address, SSN and Date of Birth. See: https://www.experian.com/ncaconline/freezepin https://www.experian.com/ncaconline/freezepin