Has anyone locked down their credit?

[rando348]

Anyone have experience locking their credit?

We have all the credit we need and I'm thinking about locking my credit to avoid possibly identity theft. I just heard of this the other day and it's interesting so just wondering.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Sunset]

It's called freezing your credit. Now it's FINALLY free.

I know some folks do it here, and they report, as long as you keep the PIN # , you can unlock it fairly easy to get more credit/buy a car/rent a place etc.

Then freeze it back up.

 

[braumeister]

There is a small difference between locking and freezing. Here's a quick rundown:
https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/what-s-the-difference-between-a-credit-freeze-and-a-credit-lock.html

 

[flintnational]

We froze our credit reports at the big 3 credit bureaus a couple of years ago. It has worked fine. But, you might have to unfreeze it more than you might think. When we changed phone companies we needed to unfreeze a report for the new company. Also, when we purchased a new car (paid cash with a check) they also needed access to a credit report. Normally you can just ask which credit bureau a vendor uses and just unfreeze that report.

 

[athena53]

I froze mine and for awhile I didn't bother looking at new credit card offers, thinking it would be a pain to unfreeze, but got a good sign-on bonus for an airline card. I applied on-line and about a week later they sent me a letter and told me what credit bureau they needed unlocked and a number to call after I'd unlocked it. I followed the directions and was instantly approved and had no problem freezing it again. Just keep your records someplace safe.

 

[Midpack]

We froze our credit reports at the big 3 credit bureaus a couple of years ago. It has worked fine. But, you might have to unfreeze it more than you might think. When we changed phone companies we needed to unfreeze a report for the new company. Also, when we purchased a new car (paid cash with a check) they also needed access to a credit report. Normally you can just ask which credit bureau a vendor uses and just unfreeze that report.

We froze our credit with the big three in 2013 after the Target hack, because we shopped there almost weekly. I have the PIN’s but we haven’t had to unfreeze. We bought a new car recently and we got the impression the dealer tried and failed to check our credit. But we paid cash so we didn’t care.

 

[eroscott]

Anyone have experience locking their credit?

We have all the credit we need and I'm thinking about locking my credit to avoid possibly identity theft. I just heard of this the other day and it's interesting so just wondering.

Thanks in advance!

We've done so for year.

Step by step. Highly recommend the free creditkarma as well mention.

Credit Freeze Guide: How to freeze your credit and protect yourself against identity theft
https://clark.com/personal-finance-credit/free-credit-freezes/

 

[gayl]

I froze everything when there was a 'reported' breech last year. So now I can only charge 18.5k

 

[mabuhay]

I locked mine after the Equifax breach a year or two ago. I switched cell phone carriers and had to unlock it, then again when I switched back, lol. But other than that it's been fine. Definitely save the pin #.

 

[rk911]

yup. locked it down abt a year ago. good thing, too. about a month ago someone tried to open a credit card in my name at Chase. i found out when Chase notified me that they couldn't proceed until i allowed them to pull my credit report.

 

[rodi]

Hi Rando -
you'll find several threads on the topic of credit freezes. It was discussions here in about 2016 that triggered my locking with all 3 bureaus.

As mentioned above - it's nice that it's now free to lock/relock. Before it varied by state - and here in California I had to pay to unlock/relock.

 

[donheff]

Froze them more than 10 years ago and all has gone well. The biggest problem with thaws (new credit lines like CCs, cars, signing up for MySocialSecurity, etc) is that you usually have to unfreeze all three. That is a bit of a PITA but the peace of mind is worth the hassle.

 

[rando348]

Thank you all for your input. This is next on my to do list.

 

[Rianne]

I froze all 3 bureaus for DH and me. Lost all pins and passwords. I'm sure I hid them somewhere and cannot remember where. I'm wondering if my credit score can change if I've frozen the reports. Not planning on borrowing or opening new CC. I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.

 

[REWahoo]

I froze all 3 bureaus for DH and me. Lost all pins and passwords. I'm sure I hid them somewhere and cannot remember where. I'm wondering if my credit score can change if I've frozen the reports.

Freezing your credit has no impact on credit scoring. It continues to change based on your financial activity.

 

[EvrClrx311]

I've had my credit frozen since the Fall of 2017... After a little research into companies that claim to do it for you I concluded that these credit lock companies deal with the aftermath of what happens once you've experienced identity theft... however they don't actually do much of anything to prevent it.

The one part they do however is something that people can do themselves... create credit freezes from the three main credit companies (EQUIFAX and the others). So I went to each of them and frozen my account, created a pin (little annoying they each have different pin requirements) and wrote them all on a sticky note that I keep in a safe place. As well as an encrypted e-mail I sent to myself from an obscure place...

I've only had to unlock my credit once, well I didn't unlock it, I just asked which credit branch the bank checked, and I provided them a 24 hour pin to access it (I received the pin by going to that credit website and asking for it).

So I've had peace of mind for the last 18 months or so of no one using my credit, and it hasn't been an inconvenience at all. I'd recommend it

 

[Rianne]

Freezing your credit has no impact on credit scoring. It continues to change based on your financial activity.

Good to know. It's only freezing who gets access to see or use your credit.

 

[rando348]

I froze all 3 bureaus for DH and me. Lost all pins and passwords. I'm sure I hid them somewhere and cannot remember where. I'm wondering if my credit score can change if I've frozen the reports. Not planning on borrowing or opening new CC. I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.

I just froze all 3 and it took about 20 minutes.



Rianne, it looks like the PINS aren't needed if you go back in and login online to unfreeze. You only need the PIN when you call, that's how I read the fine print but who knows.

 

[sengsational]

Here's another thread that talks about the same topic:


http://www.early-retirement.org/for...reezed-your-credit-yet-93873.html#post2175329


I pointed to my post that indicates specifics of a temporary thaw.

 

[sakowitzm]

It's easy peasy.
Locked and forgot about it.
Applied for new credit card and got letter saying I was rejected - reason turned out to be they couldn't access credit report.
So I went online and unfroze; called new company and told them it was unfroze; they instantly processed the request, and approved.

Lesson learned: unfreeze happens immediately. So you can say unfreeze on Day1, with re-freeze scheduled for Day 2. And that works.

 

[CDRE]

I went beyond just the big three by using this thread:
http://www.early-retirement.org/forums/f47/faq-identity-theft-online-security-privacy-76730.html