If someone freezes their credit, does that meant he credit cards you already have in your name can still be used? Or does it stop everything? That's not a bad idea to freeze things until I need to open a new line of credit, which isn't often.
It looks like that site does nothing more than to scare people into signing up for the free monitor service, which in turns give them more information to sell and to get them to wiave their right to sue.
Existing loans and cards are just fine. Nothing NEW until you unfreeze. I'm already on a 7-yr fraud alert, but we are now freezing Mrs. B-Bob's too. If y'all have kids, think about that too.
I had no idea you could apply to change your SSN. I thought it was set for life. But, that seems like a drastic measure with possible side effects. Is Equifax waiving their freeze fee? The other two credit bureaus charged me ten bucks each. But, Equifax didn't. I would hope those bastards are waiving their freeze fee after what they are putting the country through (half impacted - all worried). I could imagine a scenario where they are making money off of this. In fact, I think it is a sham for any of the credit bureaus to charge us to freeze given this hack. I want reimbursement.
So, basically everyone has to treat it like they were hacked. Equifax is only sending out notices to people who had CC#s or personal dispute details hacked (which was more limited in scope). Basically, they can't reliably tell you if you've been hacked...is my understanding. Or, at least, not yet. But, I'm still unclear as I'm reading different things on this. Has anyone signed up for their free credit monitoring service (for a year free) yet? Has it opened up yet or is it still pending? I understand they changed the terms about not being able to sue if you sign up: "enrolling in the free credit file monitoring and identity theft protection products that we are offering as part of this cybersecurity incident does not prohibit consumers from taking legal action."
I want to freeze my credit as well but I want to wait a few days to see whether enough pressure is applied on Equifax to pay for those applying for the freeze. It is their colossal mistake, they should pay the fees, at the minimal.
Equifax didn't charge me today when I did it online. I got my auto-generated PIN and it said my credit was frozen. The other two credit bureaus tried to further identify you by asking you some questions about loans, mortgage, or whatever. Equifax didn't. It's weird because I think I failed the TransUnion additional questions it was asking (or it had a problem identifying me as me) as part of the freeze process. When that failed, I called their automated phone line and froze it without those questions. And, I had to punch in my credit card info. One Senator was talking about passing a bill or something to get Equifax to reimburse the charges for the other two credit bureau freezes. I'm out $20 for something that is not my fault. Then, I'm out more when I want to unfreeze if I need to. Then, re-freeze. This is bullsh_t to the nth degree. I f_cking hate this.
I had life lock back in 2005 and they would call me if anyone tried to access my credit. I wish they still offered this.
I have lifelock too. The quality of their protection has really gone down in a few years. Compare what one gets in terms of protection from the basic to the most expensive plan.
I have to pay to freeze my credit? The fk. I guess I will just do a fraud-alert for now. It's good for 90 days and you can do it with just one of the bureaus and they will share with the other 2. I had someone open 4 accounts in Nov (i posted a thread about it) and it was a major PITA to get it fixed. I had to do a police report.
What a pos company this is. Can't login, customer service lines been busy all day. I hope they go bankrupt...and then **** on themselves in public.
Surfguy, thanks for the info. I just placed a credit freeze. Free on Equifax. Will wait a bit for the other two before taking action.
big companies like equifax don't go bankrupt the same way you and i do. When they go bankrupt everyone is still rich as hell. think solyndra.
