Lock & Alert app from equifax, anybody use this yet?

[jjflyman]

Lock & Alert app looks like a great idea. Has anybody tried it? I hope the others agencies come out with their own app, because IDK how much good it does to lock Equifax and not Trans or Experion.

[audreyh1]

Why would you trust Equifax?

[MRG]

Quote:

Originally Posted by audreyh1 Why would you trust Equifax?

+1

They proved their inability to secure data. What they did should be called what it is, malpractice.

The folks involved with their internal security should be banned from ever working in the industry for life.

[jjflyman]

Quote:

Originally Posted by audreyh1 Why would you trust Equifax?

I don't trust Equifax, that's why I want to freeze or lock my credit. However, I have ready far too many horror stories of people trying to "Unfreeze" their credit through Equifax and having a nightmare with them, that's why I thought this app would make the necessary evil of dealing with Equifax easier.
So...my original question is ..... Has anybody tried this app?

[Chuckanut]

Quote:

Originally Posted by audreyh1 Why would you trust Equifax?

That is the question I ask myself. Not only did the bad guys get into Equifax using a weakness that should have been patched, but they withheld that information from the public for over a month.

If you had the right to choose a credit bureau to hold your records, would you choose Equifax?

[GrayHare]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chuckanut If you had the right to choose a credit bureau to hold your records, would you choose Equifax?

Interesting idea, let each of us decide which credit bureaus we want to track us, as many or as few as we each prefer.

[Choices]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chuckanut If you had the right to choose a credit bureau to hold your records, would you choose Equifax?

That is exactly what I was wondering. I would love to remove their access to my “ permanent record” but that train has left the station.
Would be interesting to know if businesses are stepping away from using this bureau.

[jjflyman]

I think we can all agree that Equifax is a crummy company that we would all rather not be in charge of our personal information, unfortunately, we cant do anything about it.
If we want to shut off or freeze our credit, we have to deal with Equifax.
So, has anybody tried the lock & alert app? if so, what are your thoughts?

[donheff]

I had to look this up in the App Store to figure out what it is. I’m not going to try it because I already have a freeze and have been able to lift it fairly easily. This lock sounds pretty easy but I am not clear on how much it differs from a freeze. I suspect the OP will have wait a while for reports since this app appears to be new.

[Chuckanut]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jjflyman So, has anybody tried the lock & alert app? if so, what are your thoughts?

I signed up for something similar with Experian. As far as I can see the free version is just information that will let me know that the horse is already out of the barn. The paid version is better, but still not as good as a Freeze, IMHO.

Have you looked at Equifaxes terms of service? If it is like Experian's it is written to protect company not the customer. (Suprise!?!?!)

I can freeze and thaw my Experian. Equifax and TransUnion accounts with my computer most of the times. I don't do that often, and frankly, it is worth the $10 fee for the peace of mind. (if you are over 65 not fee at all in most states.) The freeze protection is easy to use aand more robust, IMHO.

Between freezing my credit bureau accounts and monitoring activity using CreditKarma, I think I have a better systems at no cost to me.

Note: if one chooses to use CreditKarma, set up CK, before freezing the credit bureau accounts.

[athena53]

I'm very stingy about app space on my phone. I know they all "share" info about what I post, what sites I visit, what I do with the other apps, etc. If it takes up real estate it has to be something that's convenient to ME on a regular basis. Since I may apply for credit once every few years (and it's going to be less often now that I've frozen my credit with all 3 bureaus), the answer is No.

[always_learning]

Quote:

Originally Posted by athena53 I'm very stingy about app space on my phone. I know they all "share" info about what I post, what sites I visit, what I do with the other apps, etc. If it takes up real estate it has to be something that's convenient to ME on a regular basis. Since I may apply for credit once every few years (and it's going to be less often now that I've frozen my credit with all 3 bureaus), the answer is No.

This is me. I only have a handful of apps on my phone because of the info sharing issue. I don't trust any of them.

I know I mentioned the option of Credit Lock in the other thread, but I can say that I won't be using it because I have to have an app for it. I don't "do" apps. I'm weird. And each credit bureau needs an app. No thank you.

OP, if you are wanting to be as safe as you can, then I would just freeze your credit. That is my plan. We are in a strange situation at the moment where we can't freeze ours for a while, but once we are able to then I'm going to just do a freeze.

As an aside, Clark Howard reported that free freezes might be coming soon. How soon remains to be seen, however. I would love that, as my state charges me $10 for each freeze/thaw.

Oh--- and yes, if you want to monitor your credit, Credit Karma is a great way to do that. You can look at your credit reports at any time and, as a PP said, you will need to register for a CK account before freezing your credit. The same goes for your Social Security account... if you don't have that established yet, you'll need to do that before freezing your credit, as well, since they use info from your credit report to generate the verification questions.

[donheff]

Quote:

Originally Posted by always_learning Oh--- and yes, if you want to monitor your credit, Credit Karma is a great way to do that. You can look at your credit reports at any time and, as a PP said, you will need to register for a CK account before freezing your credit. The same goes for your Social Security account... if you don't have that established yet, you'll need to do that before freezing your credit, as well, since they use info from your credit report to generate the verification questions.

i hate systems that use credit info to generate questions. For me they ask me about home and auto loans that I remember nothing about. Was your 2005 auto loan for 20k, 40k, .... or none of the above. I don’t remember what my last auto loan was or when it was.