How to Freeze your Credit Report for Free
Do you know that you can now freeze your credit report for free? As incredible this may sound to you, the truth is that you can now freeze your credit report without paying a dime. If you have been a victim of data breach or identity theft, you will know how important it may be to place a freeze on your credit report. You must have heard about the Equifax (EFX) data breach that happened in September 2017. The aftermath is that, millions of Americans resorted to freezing their credit report. The cost of doing this was put at an estimated figure of $1.4 billion as consumers who opted for this would needed to pay between $3 and $10 per credit bureau.
You cannot claim to have successfully put a freeze on your credit report except it is done with all the three major credit bureaus namely Experian, Equifax and TransUnion respectively. The implication of this is that, a consumer would be paying around $30 to freeze his credit report with these three credit bureaus. To make the matter worse, there was additional fee to be paid any time you wanted to unfreeze your credit. Imagine if you needed to freeze and unfreeze your account about five times in a year, what the cost would have amounted to? But now, consumers can now breathe an air of relief as the fee requirement for freezing and unfreezing credit reports has been removed by the Economy Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act effective 21 September 2018. In addition to this, consumers can now receive one year fraud alerts as against 90 days before.
Read Also: Who can access your credit report?
What is Credit Freeze?
I have assumed that everybody understands the meaning of credit freeze. This assumption cannot be correct. So, let me quickly explain what credit freeze means. When you freeze your credit report, you are restricting the credit reporting agencies from disclosing your credit information to anybody requesting for the data. This will prevent anybody from opening a new account in your name as lenders will not be able to access your creditworthiness. Ascertainment of customer’s creditworthiness is an important requirement for opening a new account or credit in anyone’s name. But you should not forget that this also affects you too as you will not be able to open new account unless you first unfreeze your credit report. At least, one can rest assure that no one will be able to open any credit in his name. Nevertheless, it is important that you know that credit freeze will not prevent unauthorized charges on your account. You still have the responsibility of ensuring that you keep your credit card very save. You should also ensure that you monitor your transactions on a regular basis. If your card is lost, consumers are advised to quickly report the loss.
How to freeze your credit report
Freezing of your credit report is not automatic. You still need to make the request to each of the three credit reporting agencies separately. If you want to actually protect your account, it is better you do this with all the three credit reporting agencies. Freezing your credit report with just one or two credit bureaus can still leaves you vulnerable to data breach. You can do this by contacting the agencies by phone or through their website as indicated below:
Experian: Website or by phone at 1-888-397-3742
Equifax: Website or by phone at 1-800-685-1111
TransUnion: Website or by phone at 1-888-909-8872
Read Also: How to Get Your Free Credit Report
If you want to use the website option, you will need to create your login details which will require that you enter your email address with a password. You will need to verify the correctness of the information through a link that will be supplied to the email address you entered. On the other hand, if you are contacting the credit bureaus through phone, you will be asked to provide your personal information such as your name, social security number, date of birth, address and telephone number. If you want to unfreeze your credit report any time, you will need to follow the same process.