Having your identity stolen is one of the worst things that can happen to someone. You could be arrested because a criminal has committed fraud in your name, or at a minimum you spend hours and hours trying to resolve the disaster it makes of your credit and identity.
You may have heard of the suggestion to “freeze your credit”, but if this is the first time you are hearing about it, or you haven’t gotten around to doing so, please read this article and take action. I’ve had my credit frozen for years, and it has gotten easier and quicker to do.
I’m going to summarize how to freeze your credit with the three main credit bureaus, but I highly recommend reading this article on Clark Howard’s financial website. The article provides more details and instructions on how to freeze your credit by mail.
The key thing to know first is to never pay to freeze or unfreeze your credit. The credit bureaus may offer some services that seems like you need to pay to freeze your credit, but it is just some additional services they are trying to charge you. Freezing and unfreezing your credit is free.
Before freezing your credit, you should consider creating free accounts on Credit Karma and Credit Sesame to keep watch of your credit. (You need both credit monitoring services to watch all three credit bureaus.) Some credit cards now do this for you by alerting you if there is a new credit account or a past due notice on one of your credit lines.
You will need the following information to freeze your credit:
- Name
- Previous name(s) (if applicable)
- Address (and potentially previous addresses)
- Current and previous accounts (e.g., mortgages, credit cards)
- Date of birth
- Social Security number
You will need to freeze your credit on all three of the main credit bureaus to keep criminals from stealing your identity. Here are the three places to freeze your credit:
If you need a new credit card, auto loan, mortgage, etc., you must unfreeze/thaw your credit at the three credit bureaus for a period of time. Set a reminder on your calendar for 30 days to refreeze your credit.
It may seem daunting to freeze your credit, but every day your private information is at risk from data breaches. Take 30 minutes to do this and prevent the criminals from stealing your identity and wrecking your life.
