Have you tried to put a Fraud Alert on Equifax, Experian or TransUnion?
You can put the Fraud Alert with only one of the agencies and they are supposed to communicate it with the other two.
I tried to do it with all three agencies and process with Equifax appeared to be the easiest.
I started doing it about a year ago and I had to repeat it every 90 days. (Update: Starting in September 2018 the alert is placed for 1 year instead of 90 days). It took only few minutes online.
I had a reminder in my phone calendar to do it. Four times I did it and then I got lazy.
Recently, when I was on vacation, I read that Equifax was breached.
After that I started researching what I can do to protect my information the agencies like Equifax collect and hold. Many, actually the majority of the sites I checked, recommended the credit freeze.
I tried to be thorough while researching because this issue matters to me. Below is a concise summary of what I found.
I have two options:
1. Fraud alert
2. Credit (or security) freeze
What are the differences?
Both Fraud Alert and Credit Freeze are basically the same thing with minor differences:
Both prevent anyone from opening new accounts. With Freeze your file cannot be accessed. With Alert a new account can't be opened without calling the phone number you provided on the fraud alert form.
Both do not prevent from misuse of existing accounts which you still have to monitor.
Credit freeze: If you are applying for something, you will have to lift it by going online before someone will request the credit report for what you applying for (new account, insurance, apartment, job). You will have to keep safe your provided pin/ password you need for the lift.
Fraud alert: You don't need to lift it. You will just receive a call from the requesting institution. But you have to reactivate the alert every 90 days.
My decision:
I will go with fraud alert. The freeze makes me feel uncomfortable because it limits my flexibility, it needs more planning with lifting in advance. I am not sure but there also may be a freeze gap for the time you lift it, even if very short.
I will have to start those fraud alert every 90 days renewals again.
8/01/18
Update:
The Fraud Alert seems to be working. I opened a new bank account and the application couldn't be finalized online. The bank had to call me and confirm the information. And I opened a new store credit card and the application also couldn't be finalized, I had to confirm information on the phone in the store during the application process. It took one day longer for the bank account to open and about 20 min longer for the credit card application.
8/22/18
Update:
Beginning September 2018 it will be possible for parents to freeze the credit of their children until age of 16.
