Equifax, TransUnion, and Experian all offer account freezing for free. Take advantage of it! It is a great way to prevent someone from wrecking your credit
I did this when the Equifax breaches happened.
Freezing the accounts definitely had negative impacts on my credit score, despite having safe CC utilization and no debt. I saw about a 20 point dip from doing it.
Sure they claim it won’t have any effect but being safe is risky behavior to a business that relies on you being unsafe.
Why make this post if you’re not going to bother posting the links?
Experian
1-888-397-3742
Equifax
1-800-685-1111
www.equifax.com/personal/credit-report-services/credit-freeze/
TransUnion
(888) 909-8872
We can thank US Government for FORCING these companies to allow you to freeze your credit report. It used to be a state by state thing, else you had to pay them like $10 to freeze and unfreeze, unless you had PROOF that your identity was stolen.
Especially considering Equifax had that little “oopsy” (they already leaked all your personal info) 7 years ago, you should absolutely 100% freeze your credit report.
YES you have to unfreeze it when you’re needed to check your credit, but how often does that happen?
Honestly it’s a great excuse to turn down a pushy salesman as well. “Well I really wanna buy this car, but I have to unfreeze my credit report first and my info is at home, so I’ll be back.”
And do you REALLY need that 10th credit card for get that $10 coupon for Khols? Nah.
It’s a bit of work to set up, but once you set it up don’t forget you get a free credit report yearly from each bureau. So space them out every 4 months and then check them yearly.
Have you froze it recently though? They bury the fucking options and make it as painful as possible all while trying to sell you $20 a month monitoring services. Seriously equifax? Why would I PAY your backward, half assed company money to sell AND leak my data? What the christ!
I used McAfee.
