PROTECT YOUR IDENTITY ONLINE FOR FREE!
The simplest way to protect yourself from someone stealing your identity is to put a Credit Freeze (also known as a Security Freeze) on your Credit Report with all 3 Credit Bureaus. Placing, lifting, and removing a Credit Freeze is very simple to do and FREE!
Paul Stephens, director of policy and advocacy with Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, a consumer advocacy nonprofit group, says, “Security Freezes, often called credit freezes, are “absolutely” the best way to prevent criminals from using your personal information to open accounts in your name.”
What a Credit Freeze does is prevents lenders, creditors, and other third parties from accessing your credit report. Without access to your credit report, nobody will extend you credit.
A Credit Freeze does not stop existing creditors from accessing your credit report, as well as government agencies and other companies that use the information to confirm your identity or pre-screen you for specific offers.
How to Place a Credit Freeze
The steps to placing a Credit Freeze are the following:
Contact EACH of the Three Credit Bureaus individually below:
Equifax.com/CreditFreeze
Experian.com/CreditFreeze
TransUnion/CreditFreeze
Complete the requested information and upload any documents.
Choose your PIN and save your PIN in a safe place. Make sure to create a DIFFERENT PIN for each!
You might have to print out and supply additional documentation by mail in some cases. If you do, you will be assigned a PIN, and they will send it via USPS mail.
Store the PIN’s in a safe place! You will need them in the future to temporarily “lift” the Credit Freeze when you apply for credit.
You have to do the same process at each Credit Bureau in order to completely protect yourself. This is because different companies use different Credit Bureaus to check before extending credit.
While you are at it, you can even place a Credit Freeze for each one of your kids! For these, you will have to complete the requested forms and send in some additional documentation to prove that you are the minor’s parent/guardian.
Incredibly children are at a higher risk of identity theft than adults! While more time consuming, I would highly recommend all parents and guardians take the time to make sure that their kids are protected.
While no Credit Reporting agency knowingly keeps data for a minor under 13, you need to be proactive. The time to find and fix any mistakes is as soon as possible with all the data breaches at health insurers and other companies, and your children may have been exposed to identity theft.
All credit bureaus are offering some paid monitoring service to try to generate revenue. They rarely will come out and tell you that you can put on a credit freeze for FREE.