Credit monitoring or credit freeze or fraud alert

[REWahoo]

Whenever I have been asked to unfreeze for a particular reason (new credit card, etc.) I have just asked them which agency they use. I unfroze at that agency (most of the time it was Experian) for a day or two so they could process it, then it went back to frozen again.

This is exactly how I did it the only time we had the need to unfreeze our credit.

 

[Corporateburnout]

Depends on who needs it. Whenever I have been asked to unfreeze for a particular reason (new credit card, etc.) I have just asked them which agency they use. I unfroze at that agency (most of the time it was Experian) for a day or two so they could process it, then it went back to frozen again.

I've heard of some cases where the agent you spoke with didn't know which one they used, so you had to unfreeze all of them, but that hasn't happened to me.

I had to unfreeze mine twice. The first time I had to unfreeze with all three bureaus because the creditor would not specify the bureau they worked with but the second time I only had to do it with Transunion.

 

[Freedom56]

I'm new here and would like some guidance on what any of you do.
DW and I are late 50's now, ER sometime next year. We don't need anymore "credit" , and would like to basically shut our credit off to prevent any ID theft.
What should we do? We have zero debt and don't want or need anymore credit.
What do you guys do to protect yourself? Can I just "turn off" my credit?

This is what we do or don't do:

Credit freeze

Free credit monitoring through AAA

Limit the number of credit cards to 3 and minimize their use when overseas

Never use an ATM/debit card overseas for purchases.

Get free annual credit reports through the free site

Don't use non-bank ATMs

Periodically do a search on my properties with the recorder's office

Periodically check balances on all accounts

Use cash for purchases when possible. You would be surprised how much of a discount you get when you pay cash for goods and services.