The other day I was listening to the Clark Howard Show on AM radio, and he shared this bit of information that I found to be very helpful:
Credit freezes are one of the most effective tools against economic ID theft available to consumers. They allow you to lock up your records and select a secret code that only you know and can use to temporarily "thaw" your credit. That added layer of security means that thieves can't do anything with your information even if they are able to obtain it.
Freezes have always been available for free to victims of ID theft. But recently all three of the major credit bureaus adopted new rules allowing more non-victims to have access to them than ever.
This is a big step forward. Before the new rules, only residents in the 39 states (plus Washington D.C.) listed in the columns below were allowed by statute to request a credit freeze. Now everyone else in the other 11 states -- Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Michigan, Missouri, Ohio, South Carolina, and Virginia -- will be allowed to take this preemptive measure against ID theft. If you live in one of the 11 states, here's what you need to know:
• The cost varies by state and can be up to $10 per bureau. Under that scenario, the total amount to freeze all three credit reports would be $30. (For Georgia residents, the cost will be $3 per bureau as of Aug. 1, 2008. It will be free for senior citizens and victims of ID theft with a valid police report.)
• It will also cost you up to $10 per bureau each time you want to unfreeze or "thaw" your records to apply for new credit. Again, this fee varies on a state-to-state basis.Full instructions for requesting your credit freeze online are available at TransUnion.com, Experian.com and Equifax.com*.
Requesting your freeze by telephone? Here are the numbers to call:
For Experian, dial 1-888-397-3742
For Equifax, dial 1-800-685-1111
For TransUnion, dial 1-888-909-8872
If you'd like to request a freeze by mail, use the following form letters for TransUnion, Equifax and Experian. Special thanks to our listener Ed who put together these letters.
* The online option for Equifax currently is only available to residents of Georgia, Iowa, New Jersey and Wyoming.
3 comments:
Yup. Most ID theft prevention companies (like LifeLock) are just repackaging and managing credit freezes for you. Which means you're paying them $10 every month to manage what is a free service in most of the US. But they don't tell you that.
Steve, let's say hypothetically that oh.... I don't know, your alma mater, which is supposedly one of the most technologically advanced and secure schools in the country sends you a letter stating that a laptop with your name, date of birth, and social security number was stolen from a university building, and that you should place a fraud alert on your credit file. Let's imagine this letter reads very similarly to this website: www.rit.edu/news/?v=46283.
Given these conjectural circumstances, would you say a fraud alert is enough, or would you recommend a freeze?
Wow. That really sucks. If it was me, I would probably get the credit freeze rather than a fraud alert. For one thing, the alert is more reactive because they wait until there is suspicious activity and then try to stop it (or clean up the mess) whereas a freeze is more proactive because even if someone does have all of your information, they shouldn't be able to apply for credit with it. Also, I didn't realize this until I read the article, but "a creditor is not required by law to contact you if you have a fraud alert in place. Fraud alerts can legally be ignored by creditors." So, if push comes to shove, someone could potentially open up an account with your information and if the creditor does nothing to stop it, you have no recourse with them.
One other word to the wise concerning fraud alerts, they say in the article, "Contact the fraud departments of any one of the three major credit bureaus to place a fraud alert on your credit file. As soon as the credit bureau confirms your fraud alert, the other two credit bureaus will be automatically notified." However, you should go ahead and notify the other two bureaus yourself. Don't count on them to do anything for you.
In Delaware, there is no fee for a credit freeze for identity theft victims. All of the legal details are on that can be found here:
http://delcode.delaware.gov/sessionlaws/ga143/chp328.shtml
An easier to read "how to" can be found here:
http://www.consumersunion.org/pdf/security/securityDE.pdf
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