Featured Discussion: Have you ever needed to freeze your credit?

Yes.  Both my husband got hacked and I froze not only our Social Security accounts but TransUnion and Equifax.  I was able to do this by phone and online, respectively.  As I recall Experian made us jump through all these hoops so I skipped that one.  We were told that there would be a 90 day hold but recently I found out that TransUnion still has it frozen but that is fine by me.  When you need a credit check from TransUnion, you can unfreeze it for 30 days.

Good luck and let me know if you need any further help.

Gretchen [removed]

This January I found out that my SSN was used to establish an Unemployment Claim in OH in 2020 as I received a 1099G for 2020.  I filed an Identity Theft claim with ODJFS, OH State Dept, FTC.gov, AG OH, FBI.gov and the three major credit reporting agencies to lock my credit reports. The breach was with Equifax when several million credit files including SSN and full info was  hacked and became available on the dark web. The Federal Trade Commission sued and won concessions from Equifax which can be investigated at FTC.gov/identitytheft. The FTC has an excellent web page where you can register and utilize a highly secure, dual encryption site for the five-step mitigation plan for remediating identity theft.  I currently work under temporary third-party contract to ODJFS where I advise victims on mitigation procedures.

i keep mine frozen your score will still fluctuate. i was the victim of identity theft , where someone was attempting to take out a loan in my name. i only caught it by luck that the lender sent insurance paperwork otherwise i would not have known. ever since then i freeze my credit reports. its not a big deal easy to do and at first i would forget that there frozen and i would have to unfreeze them to apply for something , but now i usually dont unfreeze them until they mention it. helps assure me that its working . the hardest part of the whole thing is remembering which site does which report and my log in since i only have had to unlock it 3 times in as many years, but it only takes 30 seconds. 

i usually am on the line with them i unlock it they pull the report and i lock it back. 

ok so im not sure if or how but i think my credit has been frozen  and i dont know how that happen how do u get it un frozen?

Thank you! This was very helpful.

"Has anyone ever freezed their credit score? "  er frozen maybe.

I just froze my credit for the first time. This is good to know. 

Thanks for sharing this info.

This was new information brought to me from a customer while working as a Credit Analyst for Ovation Credit Services a Lendingtree Co. I was asking permission from the client to pull a soft credit report and she missioned that she had her credit frozen. I learned something new that day and today as well. Educational, I like it.

I have my score frozen at the three credit companies.   Good experience and easy.   I don't worry about people hacking my credit to apply as me.

gives me confidence