Credit freezes while searching for a new job?

[wasCB14]

My apologies if this is covered in the 400+ post thread; I don't really have the patience to read through all that.

I'm in the "most at risk" group, according to Equifax, but have not encountered any fraudulent accounts. I'm looking for a new job but the search and hiring process with multiple potential employers is long, making the freezing/unfreezing process complicated, and a total freeze impractical.

The measures I currently have in places are:

Frozen EQ, unfrozen EX/TU/Innovis/Chex/other

CK, Credit Sesame, Credit.com updates

Monthly updates from EX's free service

The free-for-a-year service from EQ

Soc Sec monitoring from Discover

I've created a socialsecurity.gov login

I'm set up with EFTPS (if it matters for tax refund theft) and will soon get set up with the CA government.

I check activity on my exchange-based healthcare plan

For fee purposes, I'm a new CA resident (EX wants to charge me for a freeze, EQ didn't, haven't checked TU's policy yet).

What more should I do? Is there a low/no-fee way to give potential employers access to do a credit check without completely lifting a freeze? Is there a no-fee way to freeze EX (and TU, if they charge a fee)?

[Anonymous]

There are special bureaus for employment screening. http://files.consumerfinance.gov/f/201604_cfpb_list-of-consumer-reporting-companies.pdf

You are probably OK but if you are really nervous, you could unfreeze EQ during the job search and cross your fingers it goes quickly (we all hope it does! GL!). I'd leave the major CRAs frozen though.

I was going to recommend the credit "lock" services that the three main bureaus offer, however this is less convenient in an employment situation when the verification could take place at any time over a number of weeks, really and not like with a credit app which is typically instant-to-days. But if you want, you can still look into those.

fyi- all 3 bureaus are allowed to charge you for a freeze. EQ just waived its fee because it's its own dang fault the breach happened. So if you want to freeze EX/TU you will have to shell out the $10-20 (depending what CA makes you pay), the same boat we're all in unfortunately.

[Anonymous]

When I started my current job they SP'd my EX. Not sure what would've happened if it was frozen, but I suspect there would be an issue. Fraud alerts are better imo.

[Dalmus]

Out of curiosity, how did you grant permission for then to pull your credit? They are supposed to receive written permission from you on a separate document request (cannot be part of an application) with no other information on it.

I only ask because a friend of mine is job hunting and wants to keep his reports frozen unless he absolutely needs to thaw them.

[Revelate]

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@Dalmus wrote:
Out of curiosity, how did you grant permission for then to pull your credit? They are supposed to receive written permission from you on a separate document request (cannot be part of an application) with no other information on it.

I only ask because a friend of mine is job hunting and wants to keep his reports frozen unless he absolutely needs to thaw them.

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It's a very limited subset of jobs that can pull credit as a function of employment.  Unless your friend works in the banking / financial service industry (and even then not every position) it's not generally something to worry about.

[Anonymous]

I've only ever had mine pulled once I accepted an offer, and then I knew it was happening.  I've never known places to spend the $$ on credit/background checks as part of the application/screening process.