And the new law maintains that it has to happen in less than an hour, so if you’re in a hurry you won’t have long to wait. Doing it the first time, which requires getting in touch (online is easiest) with all three bureaus individually, took about 30 minutes total. And, as someone who froze immediately (and made my family do the same) and recently unfroze to apply for a credit card, let me take a moment to address the hassle factor: It was no big deal.
EQUIFAX CREDIT FREEZE FREE
A federal law passed after the Equifax debacle makes it free to freeze – and unfreeze – your credit in all 50 states. “Fees were as high as $30 to freeze and unfreeze in some states,” he explains.īut, poof, they’re gone. That’s not nearly enough says Ted Rossman, industry analyst for.
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Only 5% to 8% of people have frozen their credit according to research reports. Don’t worry about the fact that it costs a few bucks.īut evidently the cost or the hassle, or maybe both, stood in the way for a lot of people. At the HerMoney podcast, we rushed to get security expert Frank Abagnale (yes, that Frank Abagnale) on the horn to ask him what to do.Īmong his advice: Freeze your credit. It was only about a year ago we were quaking in our boots about stolen identities in the wake of the massive Equifax data breach.
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Today we’re hearing that up to 500 million people could be impacted by a data breach of Marriott’s Starwood brand. This article was originally published November 30, 2018.