Freeze Loans Coming Soon Free
It looks like something good came out of the Equifax hack : freezing loans will soon be free.
This provision was included in a larger bank deregulation bill passed by Congress on Tuesday. After the Equifax hack threatened the financial security of nearly 150 million people, it sparked a big outcry over the cost, which ranges from $ 2 to $ 10, depending on the state you live in, and which you have to pay in each of the three. major credit bureaus. risk.
The credit freeze is a step up from credit monitoring and prevents companies from accessing your credit file, which means that new lines of credit cannot be opened in your name. As Christine Wong previously wrote for Lifehacker :
Let’s say a thief stole your Social Security number and applied for a line of credit at Chase Bank. If you have frozen your report, Chase will try to pull your report, but find that it is frozen. Thus, the thief cannot open a new account.
The changes are expected to come four months after the president signs the law and will set and lift freezes for everyone, no matter where you live. Consumer advocates are ambivalent about this measure. Some are happy that it is stronger than many of the current state laws, while others would like it to be more extensive.
You will need to suspend your reporting at all three bureaus (Experian , Equifax and TransUnion ) for this step to truly be effective in preventing identity theft. When you do this, you will be provided with a PIN, which you will need to unblock if you want to open a line of credit yourself. If you don’t need a new line of credit anytime soon, it’s advised to freeze your accounts, even if you weren’t involved in the hack, to be safer.
And crucially, the freeze does nothing to stop a scammer from using one of your existing lines of credit. So be careful.