Equifax credit freeze PIN no longer used!

[CDRE]

Good news: My Equifax credit freeze from September 2017 remains in place as proven by the system declining a creditor to have soft pull access.


Bad news: Equifax completely changed its methodology and no longer uses your PIN. But worse, a bad guy could take over your account that you thought was locked and frozen because only you have the PIN. Argh!! I view this issue the same as the Social Security account wherein many experts highly recommend that you setup/assume control of your account (regardless of your age).



In fact, only the last of the four Equifax representatives that I spoke with stated that I need to create an account at their new website. I'm not sure how "new" the site is, but using just some basic info like SS#, DOB, Address, etc, I was able to initiate an account in order to have the ability to start/stop my credit freeze. I was not prompted for my current PIN.



So, that experience led me to verify if my PIN that ultimately controls my freezes at the other three credit bureaus was still valid. Sure enough, my PIN at Innovis is not recognized. Argh!! I'll now have to chase that down too. Experian and TransUnion recognize my PIN.

 

[Chuckanut]

Realistically, the only good way to defend against the criminals is to have one's credit reports frozen, so just do it regardless about how one feels about the credit reporting agencies.

 

[njhowie]

Realistically, the only good way to defend against the criminals is to have one's credit reports frozen, so just do it regardless about how one feels about the credit reporting agencies.

What is being indicated is that even if you freeze the reports, the criminal, once being declined, can take the basic information, which he/she likely has, and can go in and unfreeze it themselves.

 

[donheff]

That is truly obnoxious. Do they ask you all those insane credit questions when you try to setup an account? I have a pin but would probably fail to prove my identity if I had to answer those questions.

 

[braumeister]

Yes, I had to temporarily unfreeze my Equifax account in September to get a new credit card. I was shocked that they had no interest in my PIN, and I had to sign up for a "My Equifax" account. But once I did that they immediately found my freeze and let me unfreeze it for a day. They just have a completely different system. I think the others still use whatever PIN you had set up, but I don't know that for sure.

 

[donheff]

Turns out I have a myequifax account so I can unfreeze my account. But DW tried to set up an account for herself and screwed up a question and is now locked out of her account unless she mails stuff in. F'd up.

 

[athena53]

Turns out I have a myequifax account so I can unfreeze my account. But DW tried to set up an account for herself and screwed up a question and is now locked out of her account unless she mails stuff in. F'd up.

Something like that happened to me. I had to send a copy of my driver's license and supply a phone number and a cover letter. Oh, goody- send more stuff to a place that had a major breach. And yes, I's already gotten a PIN but that no longer worked.

I think I complained about this in a related thread- now that the bureaus have to freeze/unfreeze for free they make it a real PITA.

It will be a VERY long time before I apply for another credit card.