Does Locking or Freezing Prevent SP's of Established Creditors?

[EW800]

Can anyone form whether or not having locked/frozen credit reports prevents established creditors from conducting their standard SP's? It seems like I am seeing comments both ways on this.

I have all three of mine locked/frozen as a result of the Equifax issue, however I am wondering if creditors such as Discover will still be able to do a SP for monthly credit score reporting, as well as how most creditors do SP's to keep an eye on us.

If current established creditors cannot do SP's, I would think they would have a issue with this a may take adverse action.

Can anyone confirm?

[DaveInAZ]

I'm of the opinion that freezing blocks everyone from accessing your credit file, including current creditors, and 3rd party monitoring services like Credit Karma.*

- See posts below by SlightlyRemoved, it does appear current creditors can continue to SP/Account Review.when you places a freeze.

For that reason - and the myriad of state laws setting the fees the CRAs can charge you to freeze your account - I chose to only lock my files. To lock your credit file you have to have a service directly from each CRAs, and there's no fees & no PIN required, you just click Lock or Unlock.

Locking prevents any new HPs from apps for new credit or accounts that require a HP, like some credit unions/banks. But current creditors & 3rd party credit  monitor can continue to SP account review your file. I locked my credit files with all 3 CRAs 9/11, and I got my CK weekly update this morning. On the other hand I was logged in my Lowes card account last week and they were offering monthly free TU Fico scores. I clicked Enroll and got an error message they could not enroll me as my TU files was locked. I was just testing my lock, I already get enough TU scores from other CCs.

But I PM'd AverageJoesCredit to chip in here, I remember him commenting that in a post that with his EX file frozen Amex is still able to give him a monthly EX Fico score.

[Anonymous]

Edit: whoops didn't realize CK used TU and EQ, thought it was EX. That being said they're still getting accurate TU info,but I don't know if EQ froze me yet. 

My TU & EX were frozen about a week ago, day after breach went public. I have no idea on status of my EQ freeze because m-f'ers made me send in a letter to request it because they're EQ and that's just how they roll.

That being said, it appears that the freeze have NOT blocked 3rd parties who I had an existing relationship with prior to a freeze from SP'ing me.

Since freezing my accounts, credit karma (TU & EQ)  has sent me alerts about my newly added cards and balance changes, Cap1 creditwise (TU - indicates freeze is present but says I'm still able to check report) reported new card & score increases, Citi(EX I think) has a new fico8 for me & wells fargo has a new EX bankcard2 for me. MyFico ultimate 3b+ reporting all changes across all bureaus

Keeping in mind I froze and not locked my accounts & that my EQ may still be unfrozen, but based on sources of my new alerts to me it seems SP still work if you have prior relationship to a company.

[DaveInAZ]

Thanks SlightlyRemoved for posting with your expereince with freezing your accounts. I doubt if EQ is frozen if you just sent them a letter a week ago, they're likely a bit swamped.

I got a similar message from Cap One CreditWise, that they knew my TU file was locked, but they were able to continue to provide reports & scores.

[Anonymous]

Happy to help dave!  For some further data points, I just checked my Ex report on experian.com using my report number from my anual credit report that i pulled on 7/19, which shows all current updates to my report current to today 9/17. I locked my EX & TU on 9/8. Under inqueries shared only with you (ie Soft Inqueries/ soft pulls) I am showing multiple SP's from Amex, Wells Fargo and a number of other companies i do regular business with showing with dates past my EX lock date. 

[AverageJoesCredit]

Hi Dave .

This has been my experience. I currently use a TU sevice to have control of locking and unlocking my Tu report. I have zero problems seeing my Credit Karma weekly updates or any free TU Fico scores provided by my creditors, mainly Sync, though i must unlock my report to enroll in the program. Every month they continue to update my scores with out any problems.

Experian- i used to have a monitoring service but once i placed a security freeze on this , i could no longer see any free reports or any monitoring services without unfreezing. I cannot view my Discover Scoreboard, Credit.com, or even order myfico teports without unfreezing which costs me $11 to do so. Good thing is i can do so quite easily unlike Eq.

Yes, i can see my monthly updated Ex Fico score from American Express. Lol, it was actually due to me unfreezing Ex in Feb that i got back in with Amex Since then, report is on ice again.

Equifax, i had to physically send in all my info to freeze Equifax. Ever since i did so since last Oct, i cannot view my weekly updates from Credit Karma. Ive had some issues with Equifax as well and due to me not being able to unfreeze my account online, i cant view reports pulled from Eq anywhere, myFico, if i order on Experian or TU, they cant access EQ.

I hope this helps some. I do know the freezes work as sometimes when you app the creditor will let me know they cant access my report. Before the Equihack, i was going to unfreeze Eq so i could manually control unlock/locking my teport with TU new feature but ill stay on the safe side for now

Any other questions feel free to ask me

[DaveInAZ]

Thanks AJC for all the info & data points. Equifax seems to be the problem, most folks report having to mail in info to freeze. I have EQ locked directly with EQ. I lucked out, I did a $4.95 30 day trial with the Equifax Complete Premier service, which is $19.95/mo. after the trial. I canceled before the 30 days were up, but continue to get the complete service for free now. The 30 days were up in early Sept. right before they went public with the data breach, so I'm thinking that they gave me the service free because of that.

I also got the enroll for the EQ TrustedID but it won't/can't access my EQ file because I have it locked through the Complete Premier service. TrustedID look pretty basic, so I'll just keep using Complete Premier. Credit Karma can still access my EQ info, probably because they had access before I locked it.

If folks want to do the EQ Complete Premier 30 day trial & see if they get the service free after they cancel:

http://www.equifax.com/equifaxcomplete/PSbr/

But if you have EQ frozen I doubt if it will let you access your EQ file.

[Anonymous]

Eq irritates the hell out of me. I was also given an option to mail id documents to freeze my report where as the other two bureaus let me freeze online easily. Both TU and EX have been painless when it comes online access. I ended up calling eq and freezing on phone for free of charge on the same day i was not allowed to freeze online. But they will postal mail the temporary pin which i am waiting for.  It seems Eq loves to lockout people from accessing their own credit reports 'due security and verification etc' but allows hackers access easily.

[RobertEG]

I am not aware of any freeze provisons that extend to blocking of internal account reviews, which are not based on any consumer-initiated request for new or increased credit.

An adverse action is defined under the FCRA as a denial of a request for new or increased credit..

Periodic account reviews may lead to creditor actions, but they are not considered adverse actions under the FCRA.