Put Identity Thieves on Ice by Freezing Your Credit
October 9th, 2007 Categories: Random
Credit Freezing looks to be a very simple, yet very effective counter-measure to identity thieves. Freezing effectively denies any permission to access to a consumers credit report, new lines of credit cannot be opened and existing information is placed behind a firewall. When a consumer decides they want to apply for new credit a ‘thaw period’ may be requested and access to their bureaus is restored.
Freezing your credit will not prevent further damage if an identity theft is in progress nor would it prevent someone from fraudulently using existing credit cards and the such.
Watchdog groups are making a heavy push toward mandating the three credit repositories, Experian, Trans Union, and Equifax offer consumers an easy, timely, and inexpensive ability to ‘Freeze’ access their credit profiles. Apparently the process is less than fluid, so a little massaging seems in order.
A less than perfect process to freeze and thaw makes sense, from the credit repository side of the equation. They make a whole bunch of cash by selling their ‘credit monitoring’ services. No need to monitor what no one can access. At between $5 and $12 per freeze or thaw, depending on what state you live in, it’s inexcusably cheap considering that the monthly cost of monitoring ones credit costs north of $20 per month, and does little more than notify you of fraudulent activities quicker…alas the damage has already been done.
This strategy makes a great deal of sense, the ability to turn on and off access to your credit file is a stout preventative measure that should be seriously considered by everyone…especially husbands with a wife who sees the 10% discount on an overpriced something-or-other, just for opening a store credit card, as a sound personal financial decision…
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