Experts agree that one of the best things you can do to protect yourself from fraudsters is to place a credit freeze on your credit reports.
Credit monitoring is important too, and it catches problems after the fact. Credit freezes help prevent fraud from happening. When you place a credit freeze, lenders can’t access your credit report without your permission.
For example, if you want to finance a car purchase, you’ll contact the credit bureau to lift the freeze temporarily for an hour so the dealership can check your credit. The lender might congratulate you on being savvy enough to know to freeze your credit.
If an identity thief tries to get a loan or buy a car in your name, if the lender refuses to make the loan in your name if they cannot run your credit reports, then your proactivity blocked the thief! Congratulations!
Be sure to place credit freezes for the rest of your family, including your youngsters, to help stop fraudsters from taking out loans in their names too.
Read more from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) at https://consumer.ftc.gov/consumer-alerts/2018/09/free-credit-freezes-are-here.
To make things easier for you, below are the contact details for the major credit reporting agencies to contact and ask them to place freezes on your credit. They may offer services for fees that might be different than freezing your credit, and you might decide that a free freeze is all you need:
Equifax: https://www.equifax.com/personal/credit-report-services/ or call 888-298-0045.
Experian: https://www.experian.com/freeze/center.html or call 888-397-3742.
TransUnion: https://www.transunion.com/credit-freeze or call 888-909-8872.
The information shared here is not financial or legal advice, only a suggestion to protect your security. Consult with legal and financial professionals who can guide you appropriately.
Please forward this to your friends so they can protect their financial well-being by freezing their credit too!
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