There was an article in the headlines recently about how identity thieves are selling children’s Social Security numbers over the Internet.
One way to prevent your child (or you) from identity theft is to place a credit freeze on your credit file.
Credit freezes help you thwart identity theft by preventing a crook from opening credit in your name. Credit freeze laws, sometimes referred to as “Credit Lock” laws, began in California in 2003.
Now, all 50 states in America, in addition to Washington D.C. and Puerto Rico, have laws permitting residents to lock or shut down access to their credit reports with the credit bureaus.
With a credit freeze, an identity thief can’t apply for credit in your name because you must first provide a PIN (Personal Identification Number) to the credit bureaus in order to “unfreeze” or “thaw” out your credit report and allow access to it.
How to Initiate a Credit Freeze
Surprisingly, relatively few people have actually locked their credit reports.
By some estimates, only a few hundred thousand individuals have requested a credit freeze – this despite the millions of people who have been victimized by identity theft.
Still, people victimized by identity theft can and do use credit freezes.
Additionally, individuals concerned about privacy and unauthorized access to their credit can also initiate a credit freeze.
In fact, many states with credit freeze laws have given residents the right to have a credit freeze free of charge.
In order to obtain a credit freeze, you must provide the credit bureaus with the following:
- a unique PIN or password
- proper identification to verify your identity
- proper information regarding third parties who are authorized to review your credit file
Click here to learn how to initiate a credit freeze with each of the 3 credit bureaus.
