topic Re: Experian Credit Lock in General Credit Topics

Experian Credit Lock

Anonymous — Sat, 13 Jul 2019 18:34:23 GMT

Hey everyone. I have Experian CreditWorks Premium, and have been using it for my three bureau monitoring. I keep getting a popup asking me to enable the Experian Credit Lock. I understand this locks my credit report from unauthorized inquiries. I'm just curious if anybody uses it. Does it work well? Is it easy enough to disable when you want to apply for credit? Any experiences good and bad would be great. Thanks.

Re: Experian Credit Lock

KLEXH25 — Sat, 13 Jul 2019 20:03:58 GMT

The Experian lock feature is incredibly easy and quick to use. Just hold the button a few seconds to lock it. If you change your mind, do it again. If it’s locked, you’ll get a notification if someone is trying to access your credit file.

Re: Experian Credit Lock

Anonymous — Sat, 13 Jul 2019 20:11:44 GMT

@KLEXH25 wrote:
The Experian lock feature is incredibly easy and quick to use. Just hold the button a few seconds to lock it. If you change your mind, do it again. If it’s locked, you’ll get a notification if someone is trying to access your credit file.

Thanks @KLEXH25. Once you click to unlock it, is it instant? Or do you have to wait a certain amount of time?

Re: Experian Credit Lock

KLEXH25 — Sat, 13 Jul 2019 20:12:38 GMT

It’s instant...within seconds. I just tried it too lol.

Re: Experian Credit Lock

Anonymous — Sat, 13 Jul 2019 20:16:19 GMT

Awesome. Thanks for the information.

Re: Experian Credit Lock

DaveInAZ — Sat, 13 Jul 2019 22:03:59 GMT

I can confirm the lock/unlock is instant. I was in a BBVA bank branch last Monday and the teller really sold me on applying for their Rewards card. I unlocked EX on my phone and as soon as I told her "OK, it's unlocked" she clicked her Apply button and it went through fine (approved for $6k!)

Re: Experian Credit Lock

Anonymous — Sat, 13 Jul 2019 22:09:22 GMT

@DaveInAZ wrote:
I can confirm the lock/unlock is instant. I was in a BBVA bank branch last Monday and the teller really sold me on applying for their Rewards card. I unlocked EX on my phone and as soon as I told her "OK, it's unlocked" she clicked her Apply button and it went through fine (approved for $6k!)

Thanks @DaveInAZ. This is exactly what I need to know.

Re: Experian Credit Lock

Anonymous — Sun, 14 Jul 2019 00:57:57 GMT

Is this lock/unlock free?

What is the distinction between lock & freeze?

Re: Experian Credit Lock

Anonymous — Sun, 14 Jul 2019 01:06:13 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Is this lock/unlock free?

What is the distinction between lock & freeze?

Experian CreditLock is not free. It comes as a feature of the paid credit monitoring service. Unlike a security freeze, you don't need a PIN to initiate a lock or unlock. It is in real time as others have mentioned, and can be done right from the Experian app.

Re: Experian Credit Lock

Anonymous — Sun, 14 Jul 2019 01:07:32 GMT

I actually found this link from Experian which explains the differences. If this helps anyone else...

Difference Between CreditLock and Security Freeze

Re: Experian Credit Lock

Anonymous — Sun, 14 Jul 2019 01:26:15 GMT

What Experian won’t tell you is that credit locks aren’t regulated like freezes are. They aren’t subject to service up time, backup methods of removal, or legal consequences like credit freezes are. It’s worth the less than 2 minutes to fill out a form to have the legal protection afforded by a credit freeze, not to mention the ability to remove by phone or mail if the online system is down.

Re: Experian Credit Lock

Anonymous — Sun, 14 Jul 2019 01:35:30 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
What Experian won’t tell you is that credit locks aren’t regulated like freezes are. They aren’t subject to service up time, backup methods of removal, or legal consequences like credit freezes are. It’s worth the less than 2 minutes to fill out a form to have the legal protection afforded by a credit freeze, not to mention the ability to remove by phone or mail if the online system is down.

Good to know.

Re: Experian Credit Lock

Anonymous — Sun, 14 Jul 2019 08:59:40 GMT

@Anonymous great explanation! Could not remember the details and you hit it right to the point! This new lock/unlock is more credit bureau "NONSENSE" ...

Re: Experian Credit Lock

DaveInAZ — Sun, 14 Jul 2019 12:40:01 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
What Experian won’t tell you is that credit locks aren’t regulated like freezes are. They aren’t subject to service up time, backup methods of removal, or legal consequences like credit freezes are. It’s worth the less than 2 minutes to fill out a form to have the legal protection afforded by a credit freeze, not to mention the ability to remove by phone or mail if the online system is down.

With all due respect, I'm just a tad skeptical of "legal consequences" and "legal protection" supposedly provided by a security freeze. If Experian does and oopsie and lets someone access my credit report while I have a freeze in place I'm going to get a free Harvard legal team to sue their pants off???? Equifax let someone access the personal data files for over half the country, hid that little detail for months, and almost two years later there has not been a single legal conviction or any penalties as a result. The only legal consequences were a couple of the exec management members were convicted of insider trading for thinking it might be a neat trick to sell their stock before the rest of the country found out about Equifax's gross negligence and incompetence.

To each their own. I'm completely confident with the security my credit locks provide me, and for me they are more convenient. Security freezes were designed to completely shut down all access to the credit reports after somone who has been the victim of identity theft for the months to years it takes to straigthen all that out. Credit locks were designed to provide protection to prevent identity theft in the first place.

Re: Experian Credit Lock

Anonymous — Sun, 14 Jul 2019 15:16:20 GMT

@DaveInAZ wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
What Experian won’t tell you is that credit locks aren’t regulated like freezes are. They aren’t subject to service up time, backup methods of removal, or legal consequences like credit freezes are. It’s worth the less than 2 minutes to fill out a form to have the legal protection afforded by a credit freeze, not to mention the ability to remove by phone or mail if the online system is down.
With all due respect, I'm just a tad skeptical of "legal consequences" and "legal protection" supposedly provided by a security freeze. If Experian does and oopsie and lets someone access my credit report while I have a freeze in place I'm going to get a free Harvard legal team to sue their pants off???? Equifax let someone access the personal data files for over half the country, hid that little detail for months, and almost two years later there has not been a single legal conviction or any penalties as a result. The only legal consequences were a couple of the exec management members were convicted of insider trading for thinking it might be a neat trick to sell their stock before the rest of the country found out about Equifax's gross negligence and incompetence.

To each their own. I'm completely confident with the security my credit locks provide me, and for me they are more convenient. Security freezes were designed to completely shut down all access to the credit reports after somone who has been the victim of identity theft for the months to years it takes to straigthen all that out. Credit locks were designed to provide protection to prevent identity theft in the first place.

Credit locks and credit freezes are meant to do the exact same thing since the law was past mandating free credit freezes as a result of the Equifax breach.

I don’t care as much about the legal protections as I do the failsafe ones. TransUnion had an outage on their website for almost a month where I couldn’t log in to manage my freeze but I made a quick phone call and punched my social and PIN in and lifted it over the phone. Like all things that are regulated, the credit bureaus are being held to a higher standard on freezes and can do whatever they please with locks.

Its up to the individual consumer to decide what they value more in the end but it’s ridiculous that the CRAs aren’t honest about there being a difference up front.

Re: Experian Credit Lock

Anonymous — Sun, 14 Jul 2019 16:05:06 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@DaveInAZ wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
What Experian won’t tell you is that credit locks aren’t regulated like freezes are. They aren’t subject to service up time, backup methods of removal, or legal consequences like credit freezes are. It’s worth the less than 2 minutes to fill out a form to have the legal protection afforded by a credit freeze, not to mention the ability to remove by phone or mail if the online system is down.
With all due respect, I'm just a tad skeptical of "legal consequences" and "legal protection" supposedly provided by a security freeze. If Experian does and oopsie and lets someone access my credit report while I have a freeze in place I'm going to get a free Harvard legal team to sue their pants off???? Equifax let someone access the personal data files for over half the country, hid that little detail for months, and almost two years later there has not been a single legal conviction or any penalties as a result. The only legal consequences were a couple of the exec management members were convicted of insider trading for thinking it might be a neat trick to sell their stock before the rest of the country found out about Equifax's gross negligence and incompetence.

To each their own. I'm completely confident with the security my credit locks provide me, and for me they are more convenient. Security freezes were designed to completely shut down all access to the credit reports after somone who has been the victim of identity theft for the months to years it takes to straigthen all that out. Credit locks were designed to provide protection to prevent identity theft in the first place.
Credit locks and credit freezes are meant to do the exact same thing since the law was past mandating free credit freezes as a result of the Equifax breach.

I don’t care as much about the legal protections as I do the failsafe ones. TransUnion had an outage on their website for almost a month where I couldn’t log in to manage my freeze but I made a quick phone call and punched my social and PIN in and lifted it over the phone. Like all things that are regulated, the credit bureaus are being held to a higher standard on freezes and can do whatever they please with locks.

Its up to the individual consumer to decide what they value more in the end but it’s ridiculous that the CRAs aren’t honest about there being a difference up front.

Legally, you hit the nail on the head!!!

Re: Experian Credit Lock

Anonymous — Sun, 21 Jul 2019 04:32:50 GMT

I think the locks were designed by the CRAs to try to push people away from freezing their files for 2 reasons: to get around having legal consequences, and to have another product to monetize. As stated, Experians is not free although the others now offer free locks.

Locks do not provide any more protection or different protection. Freezes provide more protection due to legal consequences. I can unfreeze and freeze my accounts at Equifax and TransUnion instantly almost. I’m sure I could do the same at Experian, but since I’m a creditworks member I do use their lock, I admit. I haven’t went through the trouble to convert it to a freeze yet.