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There are two ways to freeze your credit. The first is good for 90 days and you have to authorize any requests. The second is permanent, until you revoke it. To

by KGIII 9y ago

There are two ways to freeze your credit. The first is good for 90 days and you have to authorize any requests. The second is permanent, until you revoke it. To revoke it, you need a PIN that they give you when you freeze it. There are three companies to do it at. The cost is low and it is mandated to be free in some jurisdictions.

rectang 9y ago
Do you seriously believe that credit freezes are an adequate response to the massive harms inflicted upon individuals by identity theft and credit report inaccuracies?
- bogomipz 9y ago
  They aren't and they further shift the responsibility of dealing with credit agencies negligence onto the consumer. You want to rent an apartment, change your cell phone carrier, get home owner's insurance, order cable - all of these things require a credit check and you having to pay 5 dollars to each agency and making 3 separate calls to each of them to do so.
- KGIII 9y ago
  I don't believe there is anything better, at least that I'm aware of. Is it adequate? Probably not. Is there something better? Not that I know of. To be clear, I only know about the freezing. I got free monitoring but didn't take advantage of it. Instead, I just froze my credit and hope for the best. I don't really need credit for anything, so it has been fairly painless.
  - bogomipz 9y ago
    >"Is there something better? Not that I know of." This is the sad part about it is there is no way to opt out of having your identity put at risk by these thugs. >"I got free monitoring but didn't take advantage of it." This is perhaps the most incensing part of all of this. Is that after one of these breaches the agency offers 1 year of credit monitoring and then after that its $16.95 a month. They have attempted create another revenue opportunity for themselves by being reckless with your data. It's mind blowing.
bogomipz 9y ago
Those are actually two separate things - locking your credit and placing a fraud alert on your credit. Locking your credit means that the only people allowed access to your credit file are your current creditors. The fraud alerts means that the only way someone can grant your a new line of credit is by verifying with you personally that you intended to apply for this new credit. Locking your credit is permanent and it needs to be done with all 3 agencies separately and each time you want to unlock your credit, example someone needs to run a credit check or you want a new credit card then you need to phone each of the 3 credit agencies separately and they each charge you 5 dollars for that privilege. The fraud alert doesn't cost anything but can only be done for 90 day increments and then it is automatically revoked. And if there is any glitch in the locking/unlocking or fraud alert, the agencies will resort to snail mail and letter writing to resolve issues. Everything is set up to be maximally inefficient and painful for the consumer to discourage doing so. Also the 3 credit agencies manage a site that was mandated by congress after another scandal that allows consumers to request their own credit file for free once a year [1]. This site in addition to intentionally looking sketchy is also designed to be maximally painful to use. You will be asked things liked exact dates that you lived a certain address 15 years ago. If you fail any of these(which is quite easy to do) you will be instructed to send a letter, along with ID to the agency to request your personal credit report. It is actually much much more difficult for a person to obtain their own credit report from these agencies than it is for a complete stranger to request it. [1] https://www.annualcreditreport.com/index.action https://www.annualcreditreport.com/index.action
- KGIII 9y ago
  Ah, thanks! I thought they were talking about freezing it. The only fraud alert I know of was what was offered to me after the OPM hack. Instead, I just opted to freeze my accounts and they've been frozen ever since.
  - bogomipz 9y ago
    I think the whole "credit locking" thing is dubious at best however. For anyone that had their credit locked or frozen previously the hackers would have also gotten access to the pin numbers that permit the unlocking of one's credit file. What's to stop someone from using the PIN to unlock it and create before opening credit in a victims name?

by KGIII 9y ago

rectang 9y ago

Do you seriously believe that credit freezes are an adequate response to the massive harms inflicted upon individuals by identity theft and credit report inaccuracies?

bogomipz 9y ago
They aren't and they further shift the responsibility of dealing with credit agencies negligence onto the consumer. You want to rent an apartment, change your cell phone carrier, get home owner's insurance, order cable - all of these things require a credit check and you having to pay 5 dollars to each agency and making 3 separate calls to each of them to do so.
KGIII 9y ago
I don't believe there is anything better, at least that I'm aware of. Is it adequate? Probably not. Is there something better? Not that I know of. To be clear, I only know about the freezing. I got free monitoring but didn't take advantage of it. Instead, I just froze my credit and hope for the best. I don't really need credit for anything, so it has been fairly painless.
- bogomipz 9y ago
  >"Is there something better? Not that I know of." This is the sad part about it is there is no way to opt out of having your identity put at risk by these thugs. >"I got free monitoring but didn't take advantage of it." This is perhaps the most incensing part of all of this. Is that after one of these breaches the agency offers 1 year of credit monitoring and then after that its $16.95 a month. They have attempted create another revenue opportunity for themselves by being reckless with your data. It's mind blowing.

bogomipz 9y ago

Those are actually two separate things - locking your credit and placing a fraud alert on your credit. Locking your credit means that the only people allowed access to your credit file are your current creditors. The fraud alerts means that the only way someone can grant your a new line of credit is by verifying with you personally that you intended to apply for this new credit. Locking your credit is permanent and it needs to be done with all 3 agencies separately and each time you want to unlock your credit, example someone needs to run a credit check or you want a new credit card then you need to phone each of the 3 credit agencies separately and they each charge you 5 dollars for that privilege. The fraud alert doesn't cost anything but can only be done for 90 day increments and then it is automatically revoked. And if there is any glitch in the locking/unlocking or fraud alert, the agencies will resort to snail mail and letter writing to resolve issues. Everything is set up to be maximally inefficient and painful for the consumer to discourage doing so. Also the 3 credit agencies manage a site that was mandated by congress after another scandal that allows consumers to request their own credit file for free once a year [1]. This site in addition to intentionally looking sketchy is also designed to be maximally painful to use. You will be asked things liked exact dates that you lived a certain address 15 years ago. If you fail any of these(which is quite easy to do) you will be instructed to send a letter, along with ID to the agency to request your personal credit report. It is actually much much more difficult for a person to obtain their own credit report from these agencies than it is for a complete stranger to request it. [1] https://www.annualcreditreport.com/index.action https://www.annualcreditreport.com/index.action

KGIII 9y ago
Ah, thanks! I thought they were talking about freezing it. The only fraud alert I know of was what was offered to me after the OPM hack. Instead, I just opted to freeze my accounts and they've been frozen ever since.
- bogomipz 9y ago
  I think the whole "credit locking" thing is dubious at best however. For anyone that had their credit locked or frozen previously the hackers would have also gotten access to the pin numbers that permit the unlocking of one's credit file. What's to stop someone from using the PIN to unlock it and create before opening credit in a victims name?