Freeze credit?

[Fermion]

Um, I still don't see how that's anything but Somebody Else's Problem. Certainly don't see why I should pay a sawbuck to a company with whom I've never done business just so they can add aggravation to my life, all to protect a foolish hypothetical lender.

It is someone else's problem except for that stupid thing called law and collection agencies and phone calls and everything else that would happen if you ignored this stuff.

Believe me, I hate paying extortion money to the agency to freeze my credit but the alternative is not being able to rent an apartment (and I already have 11 evictions to my name in the past 5 years)

 

[aja8888]

One of my retired friends wife had her identity stolen a few years ago and ended up with a house being bought in her name. It took two years to straighten the mess out and her credit is pretty much still compromised.

CC fraud is nothing compared to what can happen if your identity is lifted.

 

[FIREd]

Um, I still don't see how that's anything but Somebody Else's Problem. Certainly don't see why I should pay a sawbuck to a company with whom I've never done business just so they can add aggravation to my life, all to protect a foolish hypothetical lender.

You may not be financially on the hook for the ne'er-do-well's fraudulent charges, but most identity theft victims report that cleaning up your credit is an aggravating process that can take months or even years.

 

[Nightcap]

It is someone else's problem except for that stupid thing called law and collection agencies and phone calls and everything else that would happen if you ignored this stuff.

Believe me, I hate paying extortion money to the agency to freeze my credit but the alternative is not being able to rent an apartment (and I already have 11 evictions to my name in the past 5 years)

But I don't ignore it. I am diligent in monitoring my finances.

My point is that I have no responsibility whatsoever for fraud committed because Equifax screwed up. I'm diligent in monitoring my financial affairs and my credit rating (thanks, Intuit!).

To quote one of my favorite poets:

It is always a temptation to an armed and agile nation
To call upon a neighbour and to say: --
"We invaded you last night--we are quite prepared to fight,
Unless you pay us cash to go away."

And that is called asking for Dane-geld,
And the people who ask it explain
That you've only to pay 'em the Dane-geld
And then you'll get rid of the Dane!

It is always a temptation for a rich and lazy nation,
To puff and look important and to say: --
"Though we know we should defeat you, we have not the time to meet you.
We will therefore pay you cash to go away."

And that is called paying the Dane-geld;
But we've proved it again and again,
That if once you have paid him the Dane-geld
You never get rid of the Dane.

It is wrong to put temptation in the path of any nation,
For fear they should succumb and go astray;
So when you are requested to pay up or be molested,
You will find it better policy to say: --

"We never pay any-one Dane-geld,
No matter how trifling the cost;
For the end of that game is oppression and shame,
And the nation that pays it is lost!"

 

[MichaelB]

You may not be financially on the hook for the ne'er-do-well's fraudulent charges, but most identity theft victims report that cleaning up your credit is an aggravating process that can take months or even years.

+1

The theft may not be your financial responsibility but, when carried out in your name, it certainly is your problem.

 

[Nightcap]

One of my retired friends wife had her identity stolen a few years ago and ended up with a house being bought in her name. It took two years to straighten the mess out and her credit is pretty much still compromised.

CC fraud is nothing compared to what can happen if your identity is lifted.

But a credit freeze won't protect you from having your identity stolen. Thanks to Equifax, that horse is already in the next county.

The fraud your friend's wife suffered required several people to really screw up, especially the mortgage underwriters.

 

[Fermion]

I do agree with you in principle Nightcap and I monitor our credit and bank accounts too. It is just that usually there is no recourse against the bank or whatever entity that assisted in your identity theft for your wasted time in clearing it up.

Now if that changed, it would be something. If a company gave out a loan to someone who stole your identity and then was required to not only clear up your credit but also compensate you for pain and suffering or something. I am living in dreamland now though.

 

[Rustic23]

Nightcap, not sure the timing of your running your full credit checks. If it is every 12 months, you run all three or run one of the three agencies every four months. But, this would make a big difference! In four months, you could have a 100 new credit accounts, new property, and no telling what else. The bank accounts and credit cards you monitor daily will look normal.

Now, you are right. You are not financially responsible for any of the dept run up during the time frame. However, you are responsible for cleaning it up, and at the least you will suffer the consequences while the agencies get it done. I have never gone through this, but I would imagine you have to deal with each organization that now thinks YOU charged on their credit card.

It will surely cut down on your positing here with all the paper work you will have to fill out, and proof that you weren't in Alaska last August, while you were in Hawaii, and flying to Europe.

And, it does stop identity theft. If they can not open new accounts, or buy a home or car in your name, then your name is of very little use to them.

 

[aja8888]

But a credit freeze won't protect you from having your identity stolen. Thanks to Equifax, that horse is already in the next county.

The fraud your friend's wife suffered required several people to really screw up, especially the mortgage underwriters.

You are totally off base about a credit freeze. A credit freeze will protect you from someone pulling a credit report on you when applying for a loan in your name. That way, a fraudster won't be able to get a loan with the fake ID that he lifted from you.

 

[Nightcap]

Being retired has its advantages. If I have time to argue with strangers on the Internet, I have time to deal with imprudent defrauded lenders.

This is not to say that I won't take advantage of Equifax's free year of identity protection and credit monitoring.

 

[Fermion]

Actually to be honest, the only way the system is going to actually change is if more people are like Nightcap and refuse to pay the extortion. If the number of fake bank accounts and credit cards goes up drastically after this event, the banks and companies will need to implement big changes or face severe losses. Everyone freezing their credit and having to unfreeze it to do something just takes the responsibility off of the bank or CC company to actually do legwork to verify that the person they are trying to give $50,000 to is actually the right person.

 

[audreyh1]

The FTC disagrees.

A credit freeze "lets you restrict access to your credit report, which in turn makes it more difficult for identity thieves to open new accounts in your name."

"A credit freeze also does not:

...

prevent a thief from making charges to your existing accounts. You still need to monitor all bank, credit card and insurance statements for fraudulent transactions."

https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0497-credit-freeze-faqs

So again, why would I spend money and add aggravation (the need to remember to lift the freeze before I start a new cell phone plan, e.g.) to a company with which I never did business just to protect a hypothetical unwary lender?

With existing bank accounts you need to have good security questions, email registration, two factor authentication turned on if available, and alerts configured. If a user claims they have lost the password, the credit freeze does not allow the bank to use credit bureau info to verify your identity, so it does provide some protection even with existing accounts.

A credit freeze will prevent thieves from accessing your IRS records to commit tax fraud, and SS records if you haven't already set up online accounts with those agencies, and it will prevent someone from claiming they have lost their password and an agency using credit bureau information from verifying your identity with the credit freeze in place.

Any business or government that uses credit bureau info to verify your identity will be prevented access by a credit freeze unless you temporarily thaw your credit. This is a valuable protection. Quite a few use this method.

 

[audreyh1]

But a credit freeze won't protect you from having your identity stolen. Thanks to Equifax, that horse is already in the next county.

The fraud your friend's wife suffered required several people to really screw up, especially the mortgage underwriters.

Yes, it will prevent someone from getting a loan to buy a house in your name, because the loan company will not be able to access your credit records and will see that they are frozen.

It will prevent someone from opening financial accounts in your name.

Those are how people are victimized by ID theft.

 

[audreyh1]

You are totally off base about a credit freeze. A credit freeze will protect you from someone pulling a credit report on you when applying for a loan in your name. That way, a fraudster won't be able to get a loan with the fake ID that he lifted from you.

+1

 

[aja8888]

Yes, it will prevent someone from getting a loan to buy a house in your name, because the loan company will not be able to access your credit records and will see that they are frozen.

It will prevent someone from opening financial accounts in your name.

Those are how people are victimized by ID theft.

Apparently, Nightcap is not reading all the posts. Or maybe he is seeking multiple opinions?

 

[Nightcap]

Apparently, Nightcap is not reading all the posts. Or maybe he is seeking multiple opinions?

Sorry, but the responses are coming thick and fast, so I haven't caught up.

The credit industry wants me to use its products whenever possible, because they get a small cut of every purchase. To protect themselves, they engaged the services of three credit reporting agencies, to whom they pay a tiny slice of the profits they make from me using their services. The credit reporting agencies wanted to become big wealthy agencies, so they figured that if they didn't do their jobs very well, they could persuade consumers to part with $19.99 per month for them to do their job properly. Profit!

Nice credit rating youse gots here. Be shame if sumpthin' was to *happen* to it.

 

[rodi]

I froze all three big credit agencies... and completely forgot about it since I wasn't planning on needing credit (HELOC was already in place, and we don't do credit card churning.)

But then I went to transfer our family phones to T-Mobile for the awesome $60 for 2 lines for those 55 up (learned about here on er.org. Both DH and I are over 55 - we each took a kid so we have 2 plans.) Turns out they need to run your credit... and their "customer care" center that the sales reps deal with are completely incompetent. (Understood life-lock pins (4 digits) but not the pins associated with the agencies. and couldn't tell me which credit agency.) So that turned into more of a hassle than I wanted....

But while I was unlocking my credit - I was also in the car for a new car. I was ready to pay cash - but they were offering 0% financing.... Free use of someone elses money...

My credit's now locked back up... but it was a hassle. Guess I'm good for a while... can't think of any loans/cards/etc I need to unlock my credit for.

 

[KingB]

What good is freezing your credit? The code or pin number that unfreezes your credit is also stored on the credit bureau's database and that may get hacked too.

 

[KB]

Rodi, do you remember which credit agency you had to unlock for T-Mobile? I'm thinking of changing to them and would like to be prepared.

 

[googily]

I've had to temporarily unfreeze my credit twice in recent months (new car purchase and something else I know can't remember). In each case I found out which bureau was being used, and I used the online sites to set 24 hour unfreezes, gave the lender a PIN (I think) and that was that. The car dealer and the other place both seemed very practiced in dealing with freezes.

 

[googily]

I've had to temporarily unfreeze my credit twice in recent months (new car purchase and something else I know can't remember). In each case I found out which bureau was being used, and I used the online sites to set 24 hour unfreezes, gave the lender a PIN (I think) and that was that. The car dealer and the other place both seemed very practiced in dealing with freezes.

Oh, I remember, the other was Ally.

 

[flintnational]

We had been discussing a freeze on our credit reports for a couple of years. But, never got around to it. Yesterday's news seemed to light a fire under us and we both froze our reports at the 3 majors.

FN

 

[athena53]

I just froze 2 out of 3 and am about to freeze the last one. PITA that it costs $5 for each and temporary un-freezes will also cost $5, but it's worth it. I'm also happy that all these freezes are going to provide fewer prospects the credit bureaus can sell to the credit card issuers. Maybe I'll quit getting junk mail for cards with a $450 annual fee.

 

[REWahoo]

PITA that it costs $5 for each and temporary un-freezes will also cost $5, but it's worth it.

You got off cheap - I had to pay $10 a pop and Experian tacked on sales tax!

 

[Corporateburnout]

You got off cheap - I had to pay $10 a pop and Experian tacked on sales tax!

+1.

I also paid $10 for each and an additional $5 when I had to temporary lift it for a car lease. It was well worth it.....