wrote:
Hello,
My identity was stolen about 2 years back. They tried to file my tax return which I took care of with IRS. I also froze all my credit reports at the time. My credit wasn't good enough to get a credit line at a pizzeria at the time. I also made a polic report. I haven't seen anything new in a while cause they weren't able to get any credit under my name. One strange thing, they took a Gerber Life insurance policy under a child with my last name, I have no children, and I confirmed it exists. I notified Gerber that it was fraudulent. Now my question:
Now that my credit score has improved should I refreeze my reports cause I was able to get 2 new cards? I did use the permanently unfreeze my reports option. Also, if i refreeze would this create problems when the creditors I am currentlly with look to increase my credit, but they can't because my reports are frozen all over again. Looking for some information and as usual thanks in advance for all the help.
- You should lock/freeze your credit reports because of the Equifax data breach, regardless if your score has improve. Whether you lock or freeze, your current creditors can still access your credit reports for monitoring & free scores, and usually for credit line increase requested. "Usually" because one exception I've run one into is Synchrony Bank - too add the monthly free Transunion (TU) to my Synchrony Lowe's account, and to request credit limit increase with Synchrony PayPal Cashback Mastercard I had to unlock TU first.
Freezing your credit report usually costs a fee which varies by state, and so does unfreezing, and unfreezing can take some time.
I prefer locking my credit reports with a service directly from each credit bureau:
Transunion offers the free TrueIdentity.com service which offers free locking & unlocking your report, and basic reporting such as total account balances.
Equifax offers the free TrustedID.com service that offers free locking & unlocking. I'm not sure what reporting it offers as I'm grandfathered into another, better Equifax service that is no longer offered.
Experian is the only cheapskate that doesn't offer any free service for locking & unlocking of your credit report. I use their $9.99/mo. IdentityWorks Plus service which provides locking & unlocking, as well as unlimited Experian credit reports with Fico8 score.
I've been using locking my credit reports since the Equifax data breach reported last September and really like it. When a creditor needs to pull my credit report I log into the credit bureau service and unlock it, making it available instantly. Once I confirm the creditor has pulled my report I re-lock it.
. Ive experienced this with a couple of creditors who use Equifax to grant cli such, Discover, this shocked me lol, Navy , Penfed and Citi. Ymmv of vourse but just know there are possibilities of this.