topic Re: Freezing for free in General Credit Topics

FREE CREDIT FREEZE STARTING TODAY

Sbrooks1 — Fri, 21 Sep 2018 22:19:28 GMT

BEGINNING TODAY ALL 3 CB HAVE TO OFFER FREE CREDIT FREEZE UNDER A LAW PASSED LAST YEAR. TU AND EQ WERE ALREADY, BUT EX WAS STILL CHARGING. THE FTC HAS RELEASED EACH WEBSITE ON THEIR HOMEPAGE I BELIEVE. I HAD BEEN PAYING THE 10 A MONTH TO EX WORKS. HAS ANYONE DONE THIS TODAY?

Re: FREE CREDIT FREEZE STARTING TODAY

Sbrooks1 — Fri, 21 Sep 2018 22:32:05 GMT

I just signed up for free exp freeze, experian.com/help. Verify identity and done.

Re: FREE CREDIT FREEZE STARTING TODAY

Poppa — Fri, 21 Sep 2018 23:25:04 GMT

Good timing. DW got a SSN alert today from Discover and Capital One's Creditwise.

Freezing for free

Anonymous — Sun, 23 Sep 2018 03:29:39 GMT

I just saw a story on my local news that freezing your CR is now going to be free with all 3 CRAs. I didn't catch all the details, but this is mandated as help in identity theft reduction. The will have to freeze within a day and unfreeze within an hour I think they said.

Re: Freezing for free

Meanmchine — Sun, 23 Sep 2018 03:48:00 GMT

With Equifax "Lock and Alert" you can freeze/unfreee your report in less then 10 seconds.

EX and TU take about 1 minute

Good luck

Re: Freezing for free

pipeguy — Sun, 23 Sep 2018 20:23:47 GMT

This is due to the Equifax data spill/leak/hack last year - mandated by Federal Law in the FY18 Omnibus (budget) to allow all "free" credit agency freezes on and off with no fee. The fee varied from free to charge for on and charge for off to just charge for on based on States - In Virginia it was $10 to turn on (add a freeze) per CRA, but free to suspend or remove).

The new Federal regulation is universal no charge on or off or on again or off again - overrides state regulations.

Re: FREE CREDIT FREEZE STARTING TODAY

Anonymous — Sun, 23 Sep 2018 22:11:34 GMT

My TU and EQ have been locked since June. I haven't ever had EX locked but I tried to do it multiple times online and they keep giving me an error messsage saying 'We are unable to honor your request at this time....." This was followed by an address where they wanted me to mail identification documents(state ID, insurance, utility bills, etc).

I googled this problem and I'm not the only one that is having trouble. Oddly enough, I can even log into my Experian file but I have never purchased the Credit Works from them so I don't know if I could freeze it there or not due to whatever issue. Some people claimed they had success freezing it over the phone to bypass the error message while trying to do it online.

So I called 1-888-397-3742 and listened to the menu. After typing in all the info, "Congratulations, you're Experian file is now locked. We will send you a pin within 10 business days via USPS." One of the security questions was please confirm your current street number. Hopefully they don't send it to one of the other addresses on my file I hope this helps someone that is having the same trouble as me and I will report back when(if) my pin arrives.

Re: FREE CREDIT FREEZE STARTING TODAY

MyDataMyChoice — Sun, 23 Sep 2018 23:37:03 GMT

I want to point out the difference in a CREDIT LOCK vs SECURITY FREEZE

They are different.

A SECURITY FREEZE can be requested by a consumer - it is a Security Freeze granted by State Legislature

a CREDIT LOCK can be requested also by the consumer - however it is NOT governed by state legislature - it is under CONTRACT Law.

In my opinion - I would want a SECURITY FREEZE with all rights associated by my state legisative laws. Give me more rights as a consumer.

Why a "Credit Freeze" can be easier to Lock/Unlock from your phone or an App. The security freeze can be done via a web browser / or telephone.. takes only a few moments with the PIN nunber to freeze/thaw.

Re: FREE CREDIT FREEZE STARTING TODAY

pizza1 — Mon, 24 Sep 2018 00:45:47 GMT

and of course EQ won't let me freeze, wants all the snail mail stuff, which I refuse....the continued saga. (sighs)