YSK: You can and should freeze your credit reporting accounts at all 3 providers (for US users)
Equifax, TransUnion, and Experian all offer account freezing for free. Take advantage of it! It is a great way to prevent someone from wrecking your credit
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We can thank US Government for FORCING these companies to allow you to freeze your credit report. It used to be a state by state thing, else you had to pay them like $10 to freeze and unfreeze, unless you had PROOF that your identity was stolen.
Especially considering Equifax had that little "oopsy" (they already leaked all your personal info) 7 years ago, you should absolutely 100% freeze your credit report.
YES you have to unfreeze it when you're needed to check your credit, but how often does that happen?
Honestly it's a great excuse to turn down a pushy salesman as well. "Well I really wanna buy this car, but I have to unfreeze my credit report first and my info is at home, so I'll be back."
And do you REALLY need that 10th credit card for get that $10 coupon for Khols? Nah.
It's a bit of work to set up, but once you set it up don't forget you get a free credit report yearly from each bureau. So space them out every 4 months and then check them yearly.
Have you froze it recently though? They bury the fucking options and make it as painful as possible all while trying to sell you $20 a month monitoring services. Seriously equifax? Why would I PAY your backward, half assed company money to sell AND leak my data? What the christ!
I just froze all 3 of mine and nothing was hidden. In fact everything was very obvious.
Equifax did try to make me use a lock feature instead of a freeze, but I found the freezer at my.equifax.com
The main difference between the lock and freezer is your legal recourse it seems so definitely use the freeze.
I used McAfee.
Most credit card companies provide free monthly checks to your credit so you don’t even need the yearly free checks. I just opened another line of credit and got a notification from discover 2 days later and email from them and capital one. It’s an included service that you should take advantage of.