Have read of some folks who have frozen their credit reports and are happy with it, while others found it cumbersome and unfroze.
Anyone want to share their experiences and recommendations? (We did apply for and receive 4 credit cards in the past 6 months.)
We don’t anticipate applying for any loans or financing. We have never had our IDs stolen. We may cancel or apply for new credit cards periodically if the sign up bonus offers are attractive enough, and understand that there has to be a temporary unfreezing to do so.
In HI, by statute, it is $5 to freeze it unfreeze per each of the 3 credit bureaus. Thanks for your insights, thoughts and experiences on this subject bob Bogleheads.org, several are happy to have gotten credit freezes.
Our credit scores are in the 800s, the few times we saw our scores.
Note that there is an intermediate option between wide-open insecure (the default) and frozen, which is to put a fraud alert on the credit file. It instructs credit grantors to do additional identity verification before granting credit.
My insurance carrier just got attacked. We are all, including my adult student children under my insurance, freezing our credit reports. We are also deciding whether to file an IRS form 14039. The only thing about that is the IRS wil give you a 6 digit PIN number that you have to put on you tax return every year. What a hassle.
I’m possibly impacted by the Anthem hack too. I’ve put a fraud alert on my report so far. DH already has free credit monitoring from Home Depot. Didn’t know about the IRS form, so thanks for that info. I may do the freeze, especially if Anthem doesn’t inform us soon of whose been impacted.
I spoke with a senior Microsoft guy recently who recommended freezing your credit with each of the three credit bureaus. His caution was, however, that they will send you a letter with a code number. DON"T LOSE THAT NUMBER as it will be almost impossible to unfreeze your credit (should you want to get a new loan at some point) without the code number. We’ve not frozen our credit yet, as we will likely be moving in the next year and will need our credit scores accesible. Plus I’m not sure about our record keeping ability to keep track of the blasted code number the credit bureau will send us.
You get your code number right after you have it frozen online. You print off the report, and they tell you to do that. i didn’t realize that they sent it to you in the mail also…but I printed all 3 of mine. I am also concerned about safekeeping it and remembering where it is! You are correct in that if can be almost impossible to unfreeze your credit without the code, my DH told me that, but it just seems crazy that their IT people can’t get ahold of it. In any case, DH has it on his phone (in the cloud), so make sure if you do that your phone is password protected. I just put the printed copies of mine in my tax folder, but I might make another copy and keep it in another safe place and also get that $10 program to store my ID’s on my phone. I know it’s a very big hassle, but nothing compared to getting your identity stolen.
I don’t know if we should freeze our kids or just have the fraud alert. Need to discuss more at length with DH.
This is timely! I just froze our credit with the 3 agencies yesterday. Took about an hr. Cost $18 total. Well worth the piece of mind. I printed off each code and also wrote it down in my magic book of passwords.
Contemplating doing the same for D2. D1 is moving to NY this summer and I think it will be worth waiting till she has moved and rented an apartment etc. At that point she can chose ( or not) to freeze her credit.
With a fraud alert, creditors will hesitate to give you “instant credit”. This may include on-line credit card applications as well as more stereotypical “instant credit” at retail stores. If you decide that credit freezing is too much hassle, having fraud alert is better for security than the default insecure state.
How much it costs to freeze and unfreeze your credit is set by each state. Some states make it free, others don’t. I believe in my state it costs $10 with each credit bureau to freeze and then the same cost with each to unfreeze.
@conmama
It does vary by state. I could probably look into a refund from Anthem, but I am happier it is done. I think it is also $3 to unfreeze with each agency.
Another Anthem customer- it is hard to decide what route to take. While we debate the pros and cons of the freeze I did put fraud alert on both myself and my H. I also had my youngest put a fraud alert on her credit.
I need to talk to my older two kids and let them know about the breach and talk about the best options for them. My oldest has been off Anthem for a few years so not sure yet if her information has been breached.
Pain in the you nowhere.
We have had our credit report frozen for about 10 years. Love the peace of mind. We were DONE changing credit cards and it doesn’t seem to impact us at all. The one time we needed to unfreeze it, yes, it was a giant hassle because the people trying to get the report couldn’t/wouldn’t follow the directions and kept trying to just enable it like they did for people with the fraud protection option.
And one time I forgot that the lock down would halt my getting a new store credit card (which I didn’t really want and intended to cancel once my $$ purchase was done) so the clerk tried and tried and I told her I had to go home and get the code. So she gave me the 20% off anyway which is what I was getting the card for. Worked out great for us.
This is the first year (yes, we had identity theft issues last year with tax returns, EVEN with credit lock down) that we have to use the tax id PIN. Hope it is smooth sailing using it. Never going to efile again though. the Efile is how someone submitted a false tax return under H’s ss#.
I’d edit to add, but don’t know how to modify in the new system. …
@mom60, don’t count on being gone getting your kid’s name out of their systems. Years ago a company where H had not worked at for 15 years sent a letter saying that their 401k database had been compromised and his information was definitely in it. WHAT?? he hadn’t had any money nor contact with them in those 15 years, yet they let his info get out. One of the things, actually, that kicked off our lockdown.
We put a freeze on all 3 about a year ago. Love the peace of mind.
I applied for a Pottery Barn CC after and it went through within seconds! ( cancelled the card a few months later-just needed a discount)!!!
One problem we still have not sorted out —social security uses one of the credit checks ( do not recall which one) and I wanted to see my SS balances and kept getting locked out. A trip to SS office did not resolve the issue. I finally figured out that you cannot set up an online account with SS if your credit is frozen on the one they use for verification.
Costs $10 to unfreeze here and they give you a choice as to how long such as 1 month or indefinitely.
After we froze ours (after a home burglary last summer) with all three credit reporting agencies, I assembled all paperwork related to it, and made a specific file in our filing cabinet with just credit report information in it. I also put our yearly credit reports that I request and print out in that file.
If you’re the victim of certain crimes, many states will waive the fees to freeze and then unfreeze/freeze a certain number of times a year as long as you show a copy of the police report (good reason to report such crimes). Each state is different, but we did not have to pay for our initial freeze last summer.