Equifax Data Breach Solutions?

[DaveInAZ]

I plan to sign up for TrustedID on Monday 9/11, the date they gave me, and even though that arbitration clause and class action wavier relates to the credit monitoring & ID theft protection service from TrustedID and in no way affects your rights to participate in any class action lawsuit against Equifax for4 the data breech I wanted to check if there was an option to opt-out of that. Arbitration clauses are a con job by corporations to save them the expense of  justifiable damages awarded by civil courts.

So I checked it this afternoon. That arbitration clause and class action wavier has now been completely removed from the TrustedID ToS:

https://trustedidpremier.com/static/terms

[xenon3030]

The majority of the credit monitoring services only monitor credit cards but not other things like bank accounts. How should they be checked?

Freezing EX is simple (requires a small fee). Is there a site to freeze EQ and TU for a small fee?

[Anonymous]

Well I just got through freezing all three cr's. TU and EX charges $10.00 and EQ was free. I have saved those freeze/unfreeze long pin numbers in a lock box too.

I also today changed all my passwords, user names and security questions on all my accts incl social media and the Social Security Administration.

I am a rebuilder with a thin file but have brought my scores from the 586 to 703 for EX. TU is 732 and EQ is 786. I plan to let my little accts grow and remain in the garden for at least a year so ice it is for now.

[Anonymous]

Obviously I heard about the hack in the news, but I'm not sure I completely understand what it means.

In what instances would they have any data from me that I need to be concerned about? Only if I signed up with them directly at some point or if I have CCs that report to Equifax?

We used CreditCheckTotal's free trial week back in July and as I understand they're through Equifax. But we cancelled our membership thereafter. Other than that we have not had anything to do from our end - but obviously our CCs report to Equifax every month.

I don't wanna panic, I just really want to understand the whole situation as I'm still not completely sure I understand the whole system (non-American here who just moved to the country 2 years ago)

Thanks!

[xenon3030]

I don't like freezing. I locked EX and EQ for a monthly fee but for TU, it seems that I did not have a choice. 

To lock EQ, I registered for "Equifax lock and alert plus" product from EQ for a small monthly fee. This product was expected to lock both EQ and TU but it did not lock TU unexpectedly. Then, I needed to call TU and freeze it for a one time fee.

[Gunnar419]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Obviously I heard about the hack in the news, but I'm not sure I completely understand what it means.

In what instances would they have any data from me that I need to be concerned about? Only if I signed up with them directly at some point or if I have CCs that report to Equifax?

We used CreditCheckTotal's free trial week back in July and as I understand they're through Equifax. But we cancelled our membership thereafter. Other than that we have not had anything to do from our end - but obviously our CCs report to Equifax every month.

I don't wanna panic, I just really want to understand the whole situation as I'm still not completely sure I understand the whole system (non-American here who just moved to the country 2 years ago)

Thanks!

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If you have credit at all, then all three CRAs, and probably a handful of lesser known credit agencies like Innovis, have your name, address, birth date, social security number, and possibly other information. In other words, Equifax and the others have everything an identity thief needs to pretend to be you. It has nothing to do with whether you signed up with Equifax for anything. It has nothing to do with what monitoring services you may or may not use.

This is also not just about our credit, our credit reports, or our scores. The information Equifax carelessly gave to hackers is everything a crook needs to get a job in your name, get health care in your name, apply for a tax refund in your name, etc. A criminal could also give you a criminal record by giving your stolen name, SSN, and DoB when he gets arrested. This is bad, as bad as it gets, and anyone in the country who has any form of credit is vulnerable.

The only good thing so far is that there's no sign that the hackers have done anything with the information yet.

[Anonymous]

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@Gunnar419 wrote:

If you have credit at all, then all three CRAs, and probably a handful of lesser known credit agencies like Innovis, have your name, address, birth date, social security number, and possibly other information. In other words, Equifax and the others have everything an identity thief needs to pretend to be you. It has nothing to do with whether you signed up with Equifax for anything. It has nothing to do with what monitoring services you may or may not use.

This is also not just about our credit, our credit reports, or our scores. The information Equifax carelessly gave to hackers is everything a crook needs to get a job in your name, get health care in your name, apply for a tax refund in your name, etc. A criminal could also give you a criminal record by giving your stolen name, SSN, and DoB when he gets arrested. This is bad, as bad as it gets, and anyone in the country who has any form of credit is vulnerable.

The only good thing so far is that there's no sign that the hackers have done anything with the information yet.

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Thank you very much for the detailed explanation! 

So, what to do now? How to protect ourselves? Is there even anything we can do? Any way to know it's been abused?

[xenon3030]

The good recommendation is freeze/lock all three major credit reports for at least three months (lift the freeze/lock only when you need it). Place at least a 3 month fraud alert on credit reports. Monitor the credit reports regularly (at least once each week) and register for idendity theft suppprt services.

Unfortunatly, some of these steps would cost and not free.

[Anonymous]

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@xenon3030 wrote:

The good recommendation is freeze/lock all three major credit reports for at least three months (lift the freeze/lock only when you need it). Place at least a 3 month fraud alert on credit reports. Monitor the credit reports regularly (at least once each week) and register for idendity theft suppprt services.

Unfortunatly, some of these steps would cost and not free.

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Thank you!

How does the freeze/lock impact me? 

Any recommendations for identity theft services?

Is there any way to know whether your data was stolen from Equifax?

You'd think that in such a case were basically half the country is affected, they'd do such things automatically...

[Anonymous]

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@xenon3030 wrote:

The good recommendation is freeze/lock all three major credit reports for at least three months (lift the freeze/lock only when you need it). Place at least a 3 month fraud alert on credit reports...

Freezing is certainly effective but I wonder whether it's truly worth the inconvenience:

1- Every time you wish to obtain a new credit line you'll need to temporarily unfreeze your credit reports.

This is not a big deal to most since most people only occasionally apply for credit. But if you're buying a home it means unfreezing your credit reports for weeks at a time while shopping for a mortgage and later finalizing the mortgage, which exposes you to credit thieves for that long.

2- You'll have to freeze your credit reports forever

It's impractical to request a new Social Security number and virtually impossible for the Federal government to re-issue 143 million of them. Your credit reports will have to be frozen for the rest of your life (and for years after while your estate is being settled.)

3- Credit crooks may learn to take advantage of temporary un-freezing.

I would not put it past them. And they've got plenty of time to learn how.

4- Thieves can do much more with your identity than opening lines of credit - like filing tax returns and getting medical information - and putting a freeze on your credit reports won't stop that.

For these reasons, and certainly others, I question the value of frezzing and feel that credit monitoring - where you are informed when someone has tried to open a line of credit in your name - might be the better move. We'll still have to do that forever. And we'll likely to have to pay for it forever after the first year. Isn't it ironic that the credit bureaus might actually make money from this?