Equifax Drops Credit-Freeze Fees, Should you Freeze Your Credit?

Equifax Hack:

By now I’m sure most of you have heard about the Equifax hack. Over 100 million Americans were affected, exposing sensitive information.

Equifax came out with a site to “check if you were affected”, which has drawn some backlash as some revealed that the site was fishy and said you may have been hacked even when imputing a bogus name. A Fellow TravelUpdater covered the story.

A friend of mine got hacked recently, with credit cards opened in his name, so this subject is quite interesting to me. It could have very much been due to the Equifax hack, because the Equifax data breach started back in May!

Freezing Credit:

One way many people are trying to protect their credit is by freezing their credit reports. By freezing their reports, you’re restricting access to your credit report, making it more difficult for identity thieves to open new accounts in your name. This is because to open a new account, creditors need to see your credit report before they approve one. If they can’t see your file, they may not approve the credit.

Equifax announced that they will waive all credit- freezing fees until November 21st, as this normally costs money.

TransUnion and Experian

The other two largest credit reporting bureaus also offer credit freezes, and TransUnion’s is completely free! You just have to enroll in their protection called “True Identity” which is free, and you can freeze your report.

You can freeze your Experian credit reports, but it costs money. The cost varies by state (for California it’s $10). Or, you can lock/unlock your credit report at your will by enrolling in Experian CreditWorks Premium which cost $4.99 for the first month, and $24.99 thereafter.

This hack is quite scary, and I hope everyone is monitoring their credit!

Always,

theresorttraveler