[BMW F22]

Along the same line: my mom’s credit was hit hard due to ID theft. My brother spent a month helping her with clearing it up and such. I believe they disputed things with the credit bureaus, yet her credit score dropped from high 700s-low 800s to mid 600 range and has stayed there since. It’s been 2 years or so. Any recourse or recommendation on how to boost her score?

[NickyC]

Locked, frozen, whatever you want to call it I do it. Anytime I need a credit check run I just unfreeze my profile with the company/service I use. No issues so far after years and years of use.

[cmyx6go]

Originally Posted by DETRoadster

cmyx6go , my wife and I froze ours about 5 years ago and sleep great at night because of it. We dont have to pay for a bunch of monitoring BS. We just locked that shit down. Its not like you (or us) are in our 20s trying to open up credit cards, get a new iPhone on a payment plan, or anything else like that. I'll bet like us you only open a new line of credit every 3 to 5 years at most.

Since locking ours down we have had to "unfreeze" a couple times. Once for a HELOC, and once to get quotes for construction loans. My wife unfroze hers recently to change over to a different credit card for her business. The bureaus make it pretty easy actually. Takes us about 30 minutes of work to unfreeze both our accounts across 4 bureaus. The nice thing is that every bureau offers a "temporary" unfreeze where you can pick the start and stop dates so it will automatically re-freeze itself after the date you pick.

Looks like you went for it. You wont regret it!

Other than every three years for a new car lease, I'd only need to unfreeze if I decide to buy another house. And the way things are going with new cars, I just may buy this one when my lease is up next year.

[ASAP]

the whole credit system and the way it works in general is highly suspect... paying off bills and using more of your "available" credit should never lower your score as long as your paying your bills every month... point is... no one really knows what makes sense with credit scores... the whole idea of a freeze seems weird to me as well

[Tyga11]

There's no downside in freezing your credit and quite frankly, everyone should do it to prevent fraud. It works exactly as many others have described it.

[RickFLM4]

Originally Posted by ASAP

the whole credit system and the way it works in general is highly suspect... paying off bills and using more of your "available" credit should never lower your score as long as your paying your bills every month... point is... no one really knows what makes sense with credit scores... the whole idea of a freeze seems weird to me as well

The freeze is to prevent fraud, by making your credit report unavailable to anyone who needs to access your credit to approve a credit application. For example, if someone obtains your SSN and other personal info and applies for a credit card, the bank can’t access your credit report to process the application. What’s weird about that?

A freeze is not directly related to credit score, only indirectly in that it helps prevent fraud, which can make a mess of your credit.

[ASAP]

Originally Posted by RickFLM4

The freeze is to prevent fraud, by making your credit report unavailable to anyone who needs to access your credit to approve a credit application. For example, if someone obtains your SSN and other personal info and applies for a credit card, the bank can’t access your credit report to process the application. What’s weird about that?

A freeze is not directly related to credit score, only indirectly in that it helps prevent fraud, which can make a mess of your credit.

very dumb question - why is this not how it is by default?

unless you apply for credit on a monthly basis lol.... i question the general security of the 3 bureaus just given the hack that one of them experienced and later how they handled it... a freeze seems like a partial band aid.

This is directly from Experian-

"4. Know That a Freeze Doesn't Protect Everything
A credit freeze can help protect you from someone committing credit fraud by opening a credit account in your name without your permission. It can't, however, protect you from having your identity stolen. A credit freeze has never prevented identity theft. Its purpose is to limit use of your stolen identity to commit fraud against you.

If someone steals your credit card number, they can still use your credit account to make unauthorized purchases. Also, if someone steals your Social Security number, a credit freeze won't prevent them from filing fraudulent tax returns and health insurance claims in your name.

As a result, it's important to remain vigilant in other areas of your financial life, especially if you're certain that someone has stolen your personal information."

[UncleWede]

My understanding was that the freeze allows existing lenders to continue to check your credit, but no new ones. Lock means nobody can see.

I was in the stealership and had to unfreeze our credit to get the loan approved. Then they were frozen again. I'm not paying for a lock.

CPA just sent me an email that they got hacked. Next up is some sort of IRS PIN option, just another thing for older-er people to forget. . .

[ASAP]

Originally Posted by UncleWede

My understanding was that the freeze allows existing lenders to continue to check your credit, but no new ones. Lock means nobody can see.

I was in the stealership and had to unfreeze our credit to get the loan approved. Then they were frozen again. I'm not paying for a lock.

CPA just sent me an email that they got hacked. Next up is some sort of IRS PIN option, just another thing for older-er people to forget. . .

right... but the point I am trying to make is... it sounds like this only to prevent new credit being opened in your name... is this really that big of a concern to everyone? the moment that happens... you immediately get a notification from 3 different agencies... sounds like this is more of a hassle than anything... you can immediately report an opened account as fraud

[UncleWede]

Originally Posted by ASAP

right... but the point I am trying to make is... it sounds like this only to prevent new credit being opened in your name... is this really that big of a concern to everyone? the moment that happens... you immediately get a notification from 3 different agencies... sounds like this is more of a hassle than anything... you can immediately report an opened account as fraud

When a family member attempted to open credit cards with stores like Target and Walmart, we didn't get notified. We eventually got a bill, but no notification from the credit agencies. Same for cell service from various providers.

Every now and then we still get a letter from someone trying to recover their costs. Family member lived with us for many years. Also get magazines showing up every now and then, in her name.

[RickFLM4]

Originally Posted by ASAP

very dumb question - why is this not how it is by default?

unless you apply for credit on a monthly basis lol.... i question the general security of the 3 bureaus just given the hack that one of them experienced and later how they handled it... a freeze seems like a partial band aid.

This is directly from Experian-

"4. Know That a Freeze Doesn't Protect Everything
A credit freeze can help protect you from someone committing credit fraud by opening a credit account in your name without your permission. It can't, however, protect you from having your identity stolen. A credit freeze has never prevented identity theft. Its purpose is to limit use of your stolen identity to commit fraud against you.

If someone steals your credit card number, they can still use your credit account to make unauthorized purchases. Also, if someone steals your Social Security number, a credit freeze won't prevent them from filing fraudulent tax returns and health insurance claims in your name.

As a result, it's important to remain vigilant in other areas of your financial life, especially if you're certain that someone has stolen your personal information."

It should be the default and you should be able to opt in to leave it open but that's not how it works. Maybe because it is a relatively new thing, or maybe because there is an incentive to keep it open to make it easier for banks to push more credit.

I don't think anyone is suggesting freezing your credit means you can be careless about everything else. It is just a step to take, like protecting your credit card numbers, bank account numbers and SSN.

Originally Posted by ASAP

right... but the point I am trying to make is... it sounds like this only to prevent new credit being opened in your name... is this really that big of a concern to everyone? the moment that happens... you immediately get a notification from 3 different agencies... sounds like this is more of a hassle than anything... you can immediately report an opened account as fraud

Yes it should be a concern. You can either freeze credit to prevent this from happening altogether or register with the agencies to be alerted when it happens, hope it is reported as timely as it should be and then report it as fraud. Seems a lot easier to unfreeze your credit when you need it than leave it exposed and report fraud whenever it happens unless you are seeking credit all the time.

[ASAP]

Originally Posted by RickFLM4

It should be the default and you should be able to opt in to leave it open but that's not how it works. Maybe because it is a relatively new thing, or maybe because there is an incentive to keep it open to make it easier for banks to push more credit.

I don't think anyone is suggesting freezing your credit means you can be careless about everything else. It is just a step to take, like protecting your credit card numbers, bank account numbers and SSN.



Yes it should be a concern. You can either freeze credit to prevent this from happening altogether or register with the agencies to be alerted when it happens, hope it is reported as timely as it should be and then report it as fraud. Seems a lot easier to unfreeze your credit when you need it than leave it exposed and report fraud whenever it happens unless you are seeking credit all the time.

Right but if you read the comments directly from Experian above it seems VERY limited in scope... fraud can still be committed, your identity can still be stolen and your CARDS can still be used.

The ONLY thing this prevents is potentially new accounts being opened in your name... to me, that's the rarest form of fraud... i'll say, i've never had that happen (knock on wood)... and everytime, there was a hard credit inquiry on my end (obviously initiated by me), i immediately got a notification by every agency... like within five minutes... all you have to is sign up for notifications... even credit cards provide this for free now.

[RickFLM4]

Originally Posted by ASAP

Right but if you read the comments directly from Experian above it seems VERY limited in scope... fraud can still be committed, your identity can still be stolen and your CARDS can still be used.

The ONLY thing this prevents is potentially new accounts being opened in your name... to me, that's the rarest form of fraud... i'll say, i've never had that happen (knock on wood)... and everytime, there was a hard credit inquiry on my end (obviously initiated by me), i immediately got a notification by every agency... like within five minutes... all you have to is sign up for notifications... even credit cards provide this for free now.

OK good for you if you have never had this pretty common issue (definitely not rare, which is why this is even offered). I'll keep mine frozen since I get at least a couple of letters a year from banks who were unable to open an account that I never tried to open. I don't particularly care to deal with cancelling accounts or spending time to remove cancelled accounts from my credit report if they are not properly removed. I rarely apply for credit so not an issue for me whatsoever.