topic Re: Experian Freeze in General Credit Topics

Experian Freeze

Anonymous — Sat, 09 Sep 2017 19:00:52 GMT

Anyone having trouble using thier online way to freeze thier report?

I can not and neither can my son but it worked last night for my husband.

Re: Experian Freeze

Sandman771 — Sat, 09 Sep 2017 19:03:48 GMT

I tried to freeze mine but there is an open dispute that won't allow me to. Of coruse the dispute has been going on for three weeks, so if they were timely in the first place this would have been accomplished already.

Re: Experian Freeze

chrys — Sat, 09 Sep 2017 19:33:52 GMT

Same trouble here with Experian. I thought it might have something to do with their identity verfication system. I few years ago on a CR I noticed they had my current address as my previous address and vis-a-versa. I notified them and they had me send in a lot of documentation (eg, drivers license, billling statements, etc). They also mispelled my previous address. I checked my CR with Experian this morning and the address issue wan't there. However, I know having IT experience that sometimes files and tables don't get updated. So, the identity verification system might be using a table with my old address as current along with mispelling.

Did Experian ask that you send in documentation for the freeze to Allen, TX? They did that on one of the unsuccessful tries to freeze my credit.

They other thing that pisses me off about Experian they charged me multiple times for my unsuccessful atempts at freezing my credit. I might dispute that with my CC: company.

I had absolutely no problems freezing credit online with Equifax or Transunion.

Re: Experian Freeze

Anonymous — Sat, 09 Sep 2017 20:08:15 GMT

Yup they asked me and my son to send documents there. Crazy as I had out my Experian annual report when I was doing it to make sure it was entered exactly as they have thiers.
My son has only had credit for about a year so his address has always been this one.
Im annoyed at how hard this is and I hope when i need to do a lift it wont be as hard to do that.

Transunion could not verify even though I answered the questions right although one was weird asked me if I had a card with one of the following

discoverbank

citibank

chase

and another I can not remember
or noe of the above

well I have a card with 2 of the above so I think this made me fail the questionaire

so i called by phone and put a freeze ( no need to answer any questions ... for real? ) just my social and address.

now I hope the online thing resets itself in the future so I can use it to unfreeze and maybe try to confirm my identity again

Equfax done bam no problem

Re: Experian Freeze

Anonymous — Sat, 09 Sep 2017 20:09:19 GMT

I still want to monitor my reports i hope a freeze does not mess with that

Re: Experian Freeze

designated_knitter — Sun, 10 Sep 2017 04:01:48 GMT

I can't either. They really tick me off! Tried to upload the documents and they don't tell you what format files they will accept until you try to submit one that isn't on their "approved list". Then I put my DL in a PDF format (one of the few formats they accept) and got a website error twice. Plus, you have to send them even MORE secure information about yourself such as a utility bill, bank statement, or insurance statement... I guess the hackers were not getting enough valuable information from hacking them in 2015 so now they want my bank insurance account information as well?

Third time, I was able to upload it but it only tells you what to expect if you are trying to file a dispute -- not if you are merely trying to prove that you are who you say you are.

I am sooooooo beyond fed up with the CRAs -- and the proliferation of them. They collect your information and you don't even know about it. Then they don't even protect it or ensure that the information is correct. And if something is wrong, you can't get it disputed to save your life. And you have to charge them to access the information and if you want to protect your information... well, that will cost you even more! So let me get this straight:

They get paid for ~~stealing~~ collecting your information and storing it in a massive breachable database.
They get paid by companies wanting the information they have ~~stolen~~ collected about you.
They get paid if you want to see what information they have on you
They get paid if you want to protect the information they have collected about you.

What a sweet sweet deal they have... and it was bad enough when there were just the three -- but now there are sooooooo many that you can't even possibly know every single one of them. Makes my head explode.

(sorry -- just had to get that off my chest!)

Re: Experian Freeze

designated_knitter — Sun, 10 Sep 2017 04:05:36 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
I still want to monitor my reports i hope a freeze does not mess with that

I know that with my Sams Club Card, I can't get my free fico score because TransUnion has been on ice for a year or 2... but credit karma has been able to report my credit changes pretty reliably even if it is fako

Re: Experian Freeze

mitchblue — Sun, 10 Sep 2017 12:22:29 GMT

@designated_knitter wrote:

@Anonymous wrote:
I still want to monitor my reports i hope a freeze does not mess with that
I know that with my Sams Club Card, I can't get my free fico score because TransUnion has been on ice for a year or 2... but credit karma has been able to report my credit changes pretty reliably even if it is fako

Same here with my Amazon store credit. I had it temp unfroze in August for a different matter and score was availble. It's now back frozen it shows my score from 5 weeks ago so It won't update. I wonder if it's just store cards that have this problem? My major CC's never seem to have this problem.

Re: Experian Freeze

chrys — Sun, 10 Sep 2017 16:08:14 GMT

I really have to wonder if Equifax is trying to make money off their fiasco. I saw that for a mere $16 per month they have a service to protect your credit. I want to see those 3 Equifax execs that sold their shares before the news of the breach was announced hauled before Congress and grilled. The board of the company should take some action too with them.

Re: Experian Freeze

Appleman — Sun, 10 Sep 2017 17:29:49 GMT

Given the current EQ fiasco, I decided it was time to freeze my 3 bureaus.

TU was easy, cost $5

EQ was easy, cost $5

When I checked to see if I was impacted by the latest hack they answered in the affirmative and I can sign up for their free monitoring on the 13th of Sept.

When I tried to Freeze with EX I needed to answer the questions and I guess failed their questions. They asked about an auto loan but with multiple auto loans who knows if I answered how they wanted. They wanted documents sent and I see they have four (4) pending charges for $5. Of note I was on hold for over 40 minutes before I decided to hang up.

I subscribe to credit check total, and Experian product and had no problem seeing my report today. So my guess is there is a problem with Experian since the latest issue with EQ.

Finally, I decided to pay for a new 3B report here and that was held up for verification. I am still receiving alerts from myFICO monitoring and CCT so not too worried there is an issue with my file.

Re: Experian Freeze

Anonymous — Sun, 10 Sep 2017 21:06:08 GMT

If you currently don't need new credit are there any negative ramifications for placing your credit on a freeze for all 3 bureuas?

Will I still be able to monitor my credit score through my credit cards and CreditKarma?

It's my understanding that freezing credit is the safest way to deal with this compromise, but I want to make sure I don't hurt my credit score in the process. I also want to make sure that you can undo the freeze at any time.

Would appreciate if anyone has correct info on this.

Thanks,

Re: Experian Freeze

AverageJoesCredit — Sun, 10 Sep 2017 21:25:44 GMT

With my Eq frozen, i cannot receive updates on Credit Karma. Tu yes, but i pay a monthly service to be able to lock and unlock. I cannot view my free Ex scores or reports either due to freeze on my EX though i can see my updated Fico still via Amex. Freezing is good for your security and helps curb the app apetite

Re: Experian Freeze

DaveInAZ — Mon, 11 Sep 2017 15:10:18 GMT

@AverageJoesCredit wrote:
With my Eq frozen, i cannot receive updates on Credit Karma. Tu yes, but i pay a monthly service to be able to lock and unlock. I cannot view my free Ex scores or reports either due to freeze on my EX though i can see my updated Fico still via Amex. Freezing is good for your security and helps curb the app apetite

Freezing is certainly the most secure way to protect your credit file. but as someone who has never frozen or locked their credit file, I've been researching quite a bit over the past few days and have decided that locking my CR is enough protection for me. As AJC explained, freezing your CR pretty much blocks all access to your file. Creditors can't do soft pull account reviews, credit monitoring services can no longer access it, I am surprised Amex can still provide a score. Locking only stops all HPs - hard pulls in applying for new credit or things like app'ing for a bank account or apartment that requires a credit pull. But creditors & credit monitoring services can still soft pull account reviews.

Re: Experian Freeze

Anonymous — Mon, 11 Sep 2017 19:34:39 GMT

I believe your current creditors can still pull your credit report. It's just new inquiries for credit that are blocked.

I also decided to go that rout. I froze all 3 bureaus. It cost me $10. TU and EQ were free. EX charged $10. It's my understanding that if I ever want to apply for a mortgage or new credit, I can simply unfreeze my report for a determinite amount of time so my credit can be accessed.

In fact, I see no disadvantages to doing this whatsoever. To the point where I would've done this before the breach as there is no downside other than having to wait a few days to obtain new credit. Had I done so, that stupid cable company wouldn't have been allowed to run an inquiry after I specifically told them I did NOT authorize them! So I like this haha.

Re: Experian Freeze

Anonymous — Tue, 12 Sep 2017 12:36:47 GMT

I think when you aren't able to freeze online with Experian it's a pretty good indication you've been caught up in the Equifax mess. I was able to breeze through freezing all my credit reports (I came back as not affected on Equifax) but for my wife (came back as MAY be affected on Equifax) I had to freeze TU by calling in and Experian we had to mail documentation. However, we signed her up for Experian's IdentityWorks program yesterday and it turns out we were able to easily freeze her credit there instead.

Edit: Tiny correction - for Experian we apparently have what is technially called a "credit lock" via the IdentityWorks program. So it's a freeze of sorts but only stays in place while we have her in the program. So maybe it wasn't a waste of time/postage requesting a freeze via snail mail after all.

Re: Experian Freeze

Anonymous — Tue, 12 Sep 2017 13:04:16 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
I think when you aren't able to freeze online with Experian it's a pretty good indication you've been caught up in the Equifax mess. I was able to breeze through freezing all my credit reports (I came back as not affected on Equifax) but for my wife (came back as MAY be affected on Equifax) I had to freeze TU by calling in and Experian we had to mail documentation. However, we signed her up for Experian's IdentityWorks program yesterday and it turns out we were able to easily freeze her credit there instead.

Edit: Tiny correction - for Experian we apparently have what is technially called a "credit lock" via the IdentityWorks program. So it's a freeze of sorts but only stays in place while we have her in the program. So maybe it wasn't a waste of time/postage requesting a freeze via snail mail after all.

I haven't verified this so I don't want to be an alarmnist and it might not matter anyway, but someone told me that by signing up for a bureau's credit lock or protection program, you could be waiving some rights to sue in the event you are harmed in the future by identity theft. Again, I don't know this to be true, but I was warned not to sign up for any programs through the bureaus.

And how about the Equifax board execs selling their millions of dollars worth of stock shares before informing the public about the breach? They should all go to jail! But I'm sure none will. I'm pretty incensed not only by what was done, but how it was handled by Equifax.

Re: Experian Freeze

chrys — Tue, 12 Sep 2017 16:16:04 GMT

The Equifax breach is only going to make it easier for thieves to rob us of our identifies and ruin our credit rating. I think the only safe thing is to keep a security freeze on unitl you need credit and then lift it briefly before reinstalling it. What a hassle!

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-09-12/scammers-are-constructing-fake-people-to-get-real-credit-cards

Re: Experian Freeze

mitchblue — Wed, 13 Sep 2017 19:45:45 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
I believe your current creditors can still pull your credit report. It's just new inquiries for credit that are blocked.

I also decided to go that rout. I froze all 3 bureaus. It cost me $10. TU and EQ were free. EX charged $10. It's my understanding that if I ever want to apply for a mortgage or new credit, I can simply unfreeze my report for a determinite amount of time so my credit can be accessed.

In fact, I see no disadvantages to doing this whatsoever. To the point where I would've done this before the breach as there is no downside other than having to wait a few days to obtain new credit. Had I done so, that stupid cable company wouldn't have been allowed to run an inquiry after I specifically told them I did NOT authorize them! So I like this haha.

There isn't. I did all three 2 years ago and it gives great comfort and piece of mind. And I can easily temp unfreeze .. It's $5 a piece for me in Arizona. But so worth it.

Re: Experian Freeze

Anonymous — Thu, 14 Sep 2017 19:31:40 GMT

@mitchblue wrote:
There isn't. I did all three 2 years ago and it gives great comfort and piece of mind. And I can easily temp unfreeze .. It's $5 a piece for me in Arizona. But so worth it.

Can you verify if you're still able to monitor your credit through CreditKarma? That was my only regret. I do find CreditKarma useful. Also, can you verify that you still receive your FICO scores through your current credit card accounts? I was told I would be able to, but have yet verify this for myself, since it hasn't been 30 days since I placed the freezes.

Thanks,

Re: Experian Freeze

Anonymous — Thu, 14 Sep 2017 21:40:29 GMT

I also had issues trying to freeze EX on their website and did not want to send all the documentation through the mail.

Called their number, went through the automated process, done. Painless and took less than 5 minutes.