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Protecting your Identity: Credit Freezes and Fraud Alerts

by Wylie Wang | October 18, 2024 | Articles, Cybersecurity

Credit Freeze 

Freezing your credit across ALL 3 credit bureaus is one of the best ways to prevent people from opening fraudulent accounts in your name. This prevents companies from making a credit pull on your accounts, which is required to open a line of credit in your name. If you already have a company doing routine soft credit checks on your account, like a credit monitoring service, that will still be allowed through the freeze if you set it before the freeze.

Credit freezes (and unfreezes) are free and easy to implement. Freezing is done indefinitely, but you can always permanently unfreeze or temporarily unfreeze if you need to access your credit for a loan or credit pull.

Note, that you will have to make an online account at each of the 3 bureaus to freeze your credit. We highly recommend you use a password manager to generate secure passwords as these accounts will not be accessed frequently.

Equifax Credit Freeze: https://www.equifax.com/personal/credit-report-services/credit-freeze

Experian Credit Freeze: https://www.experian.com/freeze/center.html

Transunion Credit Freeze: https://www.transunion.com/credit-freeze

Fraud Alert

While credit freezes are a great preventative measure for all people, fraud alerts are used when you suspect you’ve been the victim of identity theft. If you place a fraud alert, businesses are required to verify your identity before opening credit in your name. Fraud alerts are free.

There are three types of fraud alerts:

  • 1-Year: Lasts for a year but is renewable. Recommended for those who suspect fraudulent activity.
  • 7-Year: Lasts for 7 years. Only available to those who have had their identity stolen, and either reported it at IdentityTheft.gov or have filed a police report
  • Active-Duty: Lasts for a year, renewable for the length of your deployment. Available for active-duty service members only

You only need to set up the fraud alert at one of the 3 bureaus, and they will contact and register you appropriately with the other bureaus.

Equifax Fraud Alert: https://www.equifax.com/personal/credit-report-services/credit-fraud-alerts

Experian Fraud Alert: https://www.experian.com/fraud/center.html

Transunion Fraud Alert: https://www.transunion.com/fraud-alerts

Recommendations

We recommend everyone freeze their credit permanently. We only recommend fraud alerts to those who have been the victim of identity theft or suspect that their identity has been breached.

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