How to freeze credit reports
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I suspect that my identity had been stolen, and I don’t want anyone to be able to take credit in my name. How to freeze credit reports so that potential lenders won’t have access to my credit report?
It’s called “Security Freeze“
You can “freeze” the access to your credit report very easily. It’s called Security Freeze.
When you put a security freeze on your credit report, the credit bureaus are not allowed to disclose your file to anyone, except those that you already have an existing account with (for purposes of account maintenance and monitoring).
Any other new creditor or lender will not be able to access your credit reports and scores, and therefore will probably won’t approve any credit or loan in your name, including to you!
If you need to apply for credit or loan, you need to unfreeze your credit report a few days before you plane on applying.
Freezing your file with the credit bureaus is fairly simple. Each of the 3 major credit bureaus has an online form that you need to fill in order to activate the security freeze. You need to repeat the process for each bureau separately. The service is not free. I believe that it cost around $10 per agency, per freeze.
When you put a security frees on your credit report you will be given a password or a PIN (Personal Identification Number) that you can later use when you need to unfreeze it.
See credit-report-freeze.html for more information & links to the 3 major credit bureaus’ online form.
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