![]() A credit lock “gets extremely expensive, and every bureau has a different fee range on it,” says Jerry Irvine, CIO of Prescient Solutions. ![]() Equifax has said that starting January 31, it will offer free credit locks for life for consumers. For TransUnion, a credit lock costs $19.95 a month. For example, Experian offers a first-month introductory price of $4.99 - then bumps it up to $24.99 a month after that. The result is similar to a freeze, but one big difference is the price of the service. ![]() When you attempt to place a freeze on your credit report, there’s a good chance a credit bureau will try to sell you extra credit monitoring services or talk you into a fraud alert instead.Īnother thing a bureau might try to sell you? A “credit lock,” which usually comes as part of a credit monitoring service and gives consumers the option to “lock” and “unlock” their credit through the bureau’s website or app. (In Maine, Indiana, North Carolina and South Carolina, it’s free to both freeze and unfreeze your credit.) Below is an outline of how to freeze your credit at each bureau, including a smaller bureau (Innovis) and a utility-related one (NCTUE). PIRG published an interactive map showing each state’s different fees. Note that credit freezes do have a cost in most states, but it’s only once per incident - so you’d pay once to freeze your credit, then again when you unfreeze it. You get a special pin number - known only to you and the bureau - that allows you to unfreeze your credit in the future. If they can’t see your report - and therefore the risks you could pose as a borrower - they won’t open a new account in your name. A reminder: A credit freeze prevents new creditors from accessing your credit report. The next thing to check off your list if you haven’t already? Freezing your credit - or expanding your current credit freeze. Contact Social Security (the phone number information is here) to let them know your income amount is not correct, and they’ll let the IRS know and begin the resolution process. If the amount is ever greater than what you filed on your tax return, that could be a warning that someone else is using your identity to cover their earnings. Employment identity theft - when someone uses your information to obtain a job (and sometimes doesn’t pay taxes on what they earn) - is another form of identity theft. Note: Once you've created your account on the SSA website, make sure your listed reported income is accurate - and keep checking on that every year. If your credit is already frozen, you’ll have to temporarily unfreeze it for this to work.)Įmployment identity theft - when someone uses your information to obtain a job (and sometimes doesn’t pay taxes on what they earn) - is another form of identity theft. (The SSA works with a credit bureau to verify your identity before opening your account. Just make sure that if you plan on creating a my Social Security account and freezing your credit (both good ideas), create the account first. “I’ve had people where, when they turned 70, they contacted Social Security - only to find out Social Security was paying someone under their identity for five years already,” says Carrie Kerskie, director of the Identity Fraud Institute at Hodges University. So why create an account even if retirement is far off? If you don’t, a criminal could do it on your behalf - and then apply for disability benefits (if you’re under 65), apply for Social Security benefits (earlier than you would have) or redirect benefits into a new bank account. That’s in case you need to apply for disability benefits - or access income summary statements to plan ahead for how much you can expect once you’re eligible for benefits. If you’re over 18, create a my Social Security accountĪnyone over the age of 18 can set up an account with the Social Security Administration (SSA). The answer is more substantial than simply freezing your credit.
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