Credit card unfreeze / freeze experience

[walkinwood]

As most of you know, the law now calls for credit agencies to freeze and unfreeze credit reports for free. What follows may be common knowledge, but it was new to me.

I recently had to unfreeze my report at experian (after having frozen all my credit reports after the equifax breach), and found it was very easy to do.

I unfroze it for a day to take care of business. In the process, but after the fact, I learned of an easy way to allow your financial institution a one time access to your credit report WITHOUT unfreezing (why don't we say Thawing?) your credit report.


You obtain a one time PIN on the web site after authenticating yourself and providing your freeze PIN. You then give the PIN to your financial institution. Easy!

My experience is only with experian. Do other credit bureaus offer the same feature?


https://www.experian.com/freeze/center.html

 

[gauss]

I have always unfreezed for a fixed amount of time via the 800 numbers. This was fairly painless except for paying the unearned $10 to the credit bureau.

 

[athena53]

I had to unfreeze with one of the bureaus (may have been Experian) a couple of months ago to get a credit card approved. I'd kept scrupulous records when I froze all 3 and it was very easy to unfreeze it and then lock it again. No charge.

 

[flyingaway]

Do you have to freeze credit report at all three bureaus to make sense.

 

[audreyh1]

Do you have to freeze credit report at all three bureaus to make sense.

Yes. At least the main three and perhaps a couple more.

 

[gauss]

I freeze at all three bureaus and then when someone I am doing business with tries to pull a credit report and fails, I ask them which of the three I need to unfreeze.

 

[mystang52]

A few years ago I too froze my credit accounts; at the time each agency gave me a PIN to unfreeze. A week ago I applied for a new credit card due to its incentive. I was initially rejected because they could not access my credit reports. I called and gave the Experian PIN. Literally minutes later I was approved.
So, I can say that the freezing/PIN unfreeze works.

 

[Spock]

Big 3 plus Innovis, NCTUE, and ChexSystems at a minimum.
If you are the thorough type, there is a document here listing 46 different credit reporting agencies (sourced from the CFPB)
https://krebsonsecurity.com/2018/09/in-a-few-days-credit-freezes-will-be-fee-free/

There is also an old thread on here (can't find the book mark) that also lists additional agencies.

 

[Spock]

Found the internal thread:
http://www.early-retirement.org/forums/f47/faq-identity-theft-online-security-privacy-76730.html

 

[easysurfer]

You can also do a thaw instead of unfreeze. With the thaw, you can give access to a short time (say, a couple of weeks) then you credit will automatically go back to frozen to save you the step of having to give another freeze order.

 

[scrabbler1]

I have written before about the two times my frozen credit reports were an issue. The first time was when I was offered some discount on a purchase if I opened a store credit card on the spot at the checkout area. I said it was okay but got rejected without knowing the reason. (I had frozen my credit reports a year or so earlier and had forgotten about it.) It took about 25 minutes to buy one lousy item, and without any discount, annoying me quite a bit. A few days later, I got a form letter from the bank behind the failed credit card request and called the number. I was told it was because my credit report had been frozen. Too bad the store’s cashier didn’t mention it or know to mention it.

The next time was when I requested an increase in my existing credit card limit. I was at my local bank and the rep put me on the phone with someone from their credit department who then warned me that I had to make sure my credit report for the agency they use was not frozen. Now sufficiently warned, when I got home I found the carefully stored PIN letter and had it in front of me when I called them back. They put me on a 3-way call with the agency whose rep thawed my credit long enough for the bank rep to grant my request and put in my higher limit for the next day.


Big difference between how these two issues were resolved.

 

[Spock]

...

Big difference between how these two issues were resolved.

Big difference between the skills and wages of the people involved.