topic Re: Locking credit reports questions in General Credit Topics

Locking credit reports questions

aesl1982 — Tue, 01 Oct 2019 13:19:00 GMT

Hello all I’m wanting to lock my credit reports. The question is that will the monitoring service still update the reports while a lock is on. Like Experian updates everyday. If I lock it I wanna be able to still watch it and it’s activity of what reports and falls off etc.

Re: Locking credit reports questions

Remedios — Tue, 01 Oct 2019 14:35:59 GMT

@aesl1982 wrote:
Hello all I’m wanting to lock my credit reports. The question is that will the monitoring service still update the reports while a lock is on. Like Experian updates everyday. If I lock it I wanna be able to still watch it and it’s activity of what reports and falls off etc.

It will, mine does.

Re: Locking credit reports questions

aesl1982 — Tue, 01 Oct 2019 14:46:26 GMT

Thanks, how do you lock tu and eq.

Re: Locking credit reports questions

Chelow — Wed, 02 Oct 2019 03:53:04 GMT

I use lock&alert App for Equifax, and CK for Transunion. Hope this helps !

Re: Locking credit reports questions

dynamicvb — Wed, 02 Oct 2019 16:17:36 GMT

The only one I had trouble with them pulling through a freeze is Discover's Credit ScoreCard. I have not seen any others have an issue.

Re: Locking credit reports questions

Rebuilding69 — Wed, 02 Oct 2019 22:52:54 GMT

You should be fine

Have had mine locked for awhile, and haven't run into any problems yet.

Re: Locking credit reports questions

Anonymous — Sun, 06 Oct 2019 06:11:05 GMT

You should make an account at myEquifax.com and freeze your Equifax account. You have to do it online (no EQ app), but you can always call and give the pin for any of these over the phone to unfreeze.

Make a TransUnion account and then download the MyTransunion app and you can freeze it anytime or unfreeze it anytime.

Likewise if you have the Experian app and subscription you can lock and unlock on command.

You should not have any problems with credit monitoring and if you do you just have to unfreeze it one time for the initial pull.

Re: Locking credit reports questions

DaveInAZ — Sun, 06 Oct 2019 13:40:01 GMT

@dynamicvb wrote:
The only one I had trouble with them pulling through a freeze is Discover's Credit ScoreCard. I have not seen any others have an issue.

Yep that one, you have to unlock EX to get your monthly EX score from Scorecard, Discover.com's monthly TU score works fine with TU locked/frozen. With Synchrony changing over to Vantage 4 scores you have to have TU unlocked/unfrozen, once you've changed over it updates monthly with TU locked/frozen. But with Synchrony if you request a CLI TU has to be unlocked/unfrozen.

Re: Locking credit reports questions

Anonymous — Sun, 06 Oct 2019 17:15:11 GMT

I have received CLIs from synchrony with all CRAs frozen. They wanted me to unfreeze when I wanted to increase beyond a certain dollar amount, which would’ve resulted in a HP.

I could go find the thread if you’re interested? Or you may be able to with the keyword “synchrony CLI.”

Re: Locking credit reports questions

DaveInAZ — Mon, 07 Oct 2019 00:07:05 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
I have received CLIs from synchrony with all CRAs frozen. They wanted me to unfreeze when I wanted to increase beyond a certain dollar amount, which would’ve resulted in a HP.

I could go find the thread if you’re interested? Or you may be able to with the keyword “synchrony CLI.”

Well, that was from my personal experience. I tried to get my PayPal MC from $8k to $10k forgetting I had TU locked, instant denial and letter said unable to obtain CR. Then a few weeks later they auto CLI'd it to $10k. That was a year or so ago, earlier this year I called Credit Solutions to try to get it over $10k, again forgetting TU was locked. Rep told me on the phone she couldn't pull my CR, when I told her I could unlock she said denial letter was already generated but I could try again in 24 hrs. I decided to just go for Lowes $10k to $15k instead, this time remembering to unlock TU first, instant approval.

Perhaps its a YMMV, but I suggest unlocking/unfreezing TU before asking Sync for a CLI just to be safe.

Re: Locking credit reports questions

Anonymous — Mon, 07 Oct 2019 05:40:00 GMT

Very true as with anything YMMV. Can’t hurt to be prepared.

Mine was also a CareCredit if that makes any difference.

Re: Locking credit reports questions

Anonymous — Wed, 27 Nov 2019 19:34:17 GMT

You can lock Equifax & TransUnion credit reports for Free. You can pay for Experian or do 30 day free trail monthly to get it free. Just canceled your membership to free basic after to avoid having credit card charged. It gets expensive paying for all 3 credit bureaus monitoring plus MyFico a year. While your credit report is locked with all 3 credit bureaus you can see all activity on your credit report including any and all updates on credit scores or payments made on accounts that change balance on accounts reported. The lock blocks hard inquiries & you get an alert that one was attempted. If you use credit.com which is free you need to unlock Experian credit report to get your credit.com update. If you use credit karma they will update with Equifax & TransUnion credit reports locked. I have caught AMEX trying to do hard inquiry adding authorized user to account which shouldn’t be done. I have also opened new revolving credit accounts with no hard inquiries & only attempted hard inquiries with locked credit bureaus reports all 3. I am not sure if it helps get approved for new revolving credit accounts with no hard inquiries having locked credit reports. I tried it with issuer I never dealt with before and one I had done business with. The soft inquiry seems to go through with credit report locked & some credit approvals have been done for me with soft inquiry only that normally require hard inquiry such as Apple credit card and Amex Gold card. It’s time consuming to do 30 day free trial with Experian monthly to not pay the monthly fee. If you’re willing to spend the time it will save you $19.99 for Experian monitoring monthly or $239.88 a year on Experian credit monitoring. You have all features of paid membership until 30 days are up. Experian will unlock your credit report and charge your credit card after 30 days free trial if you do not switch to basic membership free. Hard inquiries can get through if you don’t fix Experian and lock isn’t turned on. I paid for Experian, Equifax, TransUnion, MyFico monthly for some time. Before I switched to ways to see same info free. Saving me a lot of money a year. Every 30 days when you do another free trial with Experian you can update your Equifax & TransUnion scores not only Experian.

Re: Locking credit reports questions

Anonymous — Wed, 27 Nov 2019 21:42:09 GMT

Freezes are free at all three bureaus and have the exact same affect as a lock and adds statutory protections.

As for the Experian, I think they have a $15.99 plan that you can get for $9.99, if you are on Apple. Mines $9.99 a month.