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I froze my credit after the last breach. It then took me two extra painful weeks attempting to sign a lease when Experian's credit unlock did not work for me. The online form to unlock credit was inappropriately telling me my credit was unfrozen, which it was not, and my credit check was unable to run. I finally somehow found a similar but different credit unlock page with duplicate functionality that ended up working, but only after 5 unsuccessful attempts to unlock and the apartment rental company providing me the benefit of the doubt with five failed credit checks. This is too opaque and painful, and the companies in question are entirely at fault. Not sure what to do aside from raging into the void...

You could just do nothing. That's what I'm doing. I care very little if someone defrauds some bank using my identity to open credit cards. I won't be paying for it. It's the bank's problem, not mine. I'm under no obligation to expend effort to maintain their security and datasets.

The more you let this kind of thing be pushed into your lap, the more it will be.

That works as long as you don't need your credit for anything. This isn't limited to opening new lines of credit. Credit cards can be closed or have limits changed based on credit score. In most states, your car insurance rate can be based on your credit score; most policies renew every 6 months. In the event of a judgment against you for delinquent credit cards, your bank accounts can be levied.

You're correct that this isn't your problem, and eventually you'll get your money back. You're wrong with idea that you can be passive and not get screwed.

Yeah, but you can be vigilant and still get screwed.

But arn't you more likely to be screwed, and have to request an investigation in the case of id theft, if you do nothing?

Freezing credit also may lead to people less likely to open up lines of credit as well. I got a credit card request for temp unfreeze, and I've never gotten around to it.

It could help, but there are still various forms of identity theft you're vulnerable to: https://www.forbes.com/sites/nickclements/2017/09/13/3-reaso...

This article supports freezing: "A credit freeze is a helpful way to reduce the risk of having new credit accounts opened in your name." The article isn't against freezing; only says that you shouldn't stop there.

It's all a matter of reducing attack vectors. I can put a firewall on my network, but that doesn't mean I don't also need smart passwords.

Sure. It just starts to feel like it's pointless when no matter what you do the protection is so inadequate. Medical identity theft is among the most nightmarish to deal with because the identity thief's records are protected by HIPAA so it is difficult to even figure out what you're being charged for.

I can be vigilant and get blindsided at an intersection, but I still look both ways before I cross the street.

On the contrary, it works even better if you regularly use your credit report because you don't have to deal with the absolute pain in the ass of freezing and unfreezing it constantly. Time is money and that's a guaranteed loss of both.

The kind of identity theft involving use of a credit report (as opposed to a stolen bank instrument) is relatively rare. Most identity theft involves a stolen credit card and freezing one's credit report offers no benefit in that scenario.

I am absolutely not wrong, the vast majority of people take a passive approach and are fine.

I don't know why you're talking about "getting your money back," this kind of fraud doesn't involve any loss of money from anyone other than a bank. There is no way at all that I can put my own money at risk by not freezing my credit. No one is talking about totally ignoring fraud and allowing a default judgement to occur -- I am talking about not paying upfront fees to micromanage access to pull credit.

It does not matter very much at all.

> I don't know why you're talking about "getting your money back," this kind of fraud doesn't involve any loss of money from anyone other than a bank.

Not correct. If someone opens a credit card (or anything else at that bank) in your name, and rings up a large balance, you can be sued and levied. It doesn't have to be the same bank; they can and will find your legit accounts in an effort to recover funds. I'm speaking from experience; the actual lawsuit was filed by a law firm that specializes in that type of collection. The protection you get from illegitimate accounts isn't automatic; you'll still have a degree of burden, depending on where you catch things.

As I said above "No one is talking about totally ignoring fraud and allowing a default judgement to occur"

You are discussing something entirely different, unrelated to the point I made above.

Your credit score can be ruined by this and then when you need credit, such as a home or car loan, you are screwed. If you are lucky to be independently wealthy where you can pay for everything with cash, then no problem. But very few of us are in that situation.

Just file disputes, it'll get removed. Disputes are free and with a police report in hand they will go through.

I'm suggesting you should not pay upfront to help curate this data, to pay to micromanage access to a credit report to protect other lenders.

Why? You really want to spend all your time fighting someone who gets a hold of your information? It is not a one or two times thing. Go talk to people who had their identities stolen. It is not fun and it can take years to fix everything. I know one person who is still having trouble after 15 years.

The vast majority of people will spend less time as this is a rare occurrence.

Freezing a credit report is not going to prevent someone from getting ahold of your information. It will prevent someone who already has your information from running your credit and opening new lines of credit -- which doesn't matter much. It is completely ineffective for the vast majority (90%+) of identity theft.

It will not protect you from someone stealing your cards or checks.

identity theft != credit card theft

Yes, credit card theft is not a big deal and you don't really need any protection because the CC companies are pretty pro-active about it. That is not what we are talking about. Yes, real identity theft is rare but it does happen. With a few simple steps, you can protect yourself better in the rare case that it does. Can you completely protect yourself? No, but some protection is better than none.

On the contrary, credit card theft is one of the most common forms of identity theft.

As I said above, it is far, far less time and expense to follow up to actual fraud with a police report than it is to freeze-unfreeze your credit every time you want to pass a credit check.

> As I said above, it is far, far less time and expense to follow up to actual fraud with a police report than it is to freeze-unfreeze your credit every time you want to pass a credit check.

Unless you need monthly credit checks (very odd), I find that statement extremely hard to believe.

Would you care to elaborate? I'm finding your opinion rather odd myself.

The vast majority of people never freeze their credit and never have to expend any energy on the issue of credit security at all.

Most people have their credit run a few times a year, when they sign up for a new service, new credit product, raise a limit, buy a new vehicle, what have you.

I just tried to freeze my credit on Equifax. At the end of the process I received a “one time pdf” with a pin to unfreeze. The pdf was garbled and illegible but there was a number to call if you couldn’t view it. I called the number and was told their system is down and to call back later. This feels more painful than getting my identity stolen.

Did you save the PDF? The PDF wasnt too hard to read for me. I saved it to my Drive account just in case and wrote down the PIN #.

No, I was on an iPhone and didn’t have the ability to that I know of.

It only prevents identity theft used to open new lines of credit. Which seems to me like the least troublesome kind of identity theft. You can swear that you did not open that account, and it's up to the lender to prove that you did. Which they will not be able to do.

On the other hand if your identity is stolen and your current lines of credit or bank accounts get drained, it's much more difficult to deal with because the money's gone, or there are a bunch of transactions you need to contest individually.

Do you have kids? If so - do you freeze theirs too? (I'm considering doing so myself)

It would not hurt to do so.

I just did this and for Equifax and TransUnion, it was very easy, you just download the app and fill in some information. Experian looks like I will have to mail in a request with some documents.

FYI this was a credit _lock_, and not a credit freeze

> Unsurprisingly, the bureaus’ use of the term credit lock has confused many consumers; this was almost certainly by design. But here’s one basic fact consumers should keep in mind about these lock services: Unlike freezes, locks are not governed by any law, meaning that the credit bureaus can change the terms of these arrangements when and if it suits them to do so.

https://krebsonsecurity.com/2018/09/credit-freezes-are-free-...

Plus Equifax and TransUnion reports are rarely used, during credit applications Experian gets pulled ~75% of the time (I churn credit cards).

I'd recommend just actively monitoring your credit before going overboard and freezing it. There's a bunch of different free credit report apps that will send you push notifications the moment anything changes, and things like credit pulls show up almost instantly now. I get notified immediately if anything changes on my report via text, email, and push.

Better to freeze. Credit monitoring just gives you quicker notification that you've already entered a huge world of hurt. The fraudster has successfully struck, and now you have to go to work to undo the damage, which can be a years-long nightmare. ("Well, it shows here that you bought a truck and stopped paying. Not you, you say? Prove it! Oh, and until you do, don't expect to have good credit. Maybe never, actually.")

Credit monitoring just gives you quicker notification

Define "quicker."

I got the credit monitoring from Exerpan after its data breach.

Since then, I've had my credit run twice. Both times were initiated by me, so I know when it happened. Both times, I received a notification by e-mail SEVEN DAYS later, followed by a text message a day after that.

Seven days is plenty long enough to destroy someone's finances.

> Well, it shows here that you bought a truck and stopped paying. Not you, you say? Prove it!

Shouldn't the burden of proof be on them to show that you bought the truck? If their negligence actually prevented you from obtaining credit, shouldn't it be easy to get damages in small claims court?

Freezing it is relatively easy and you don't have to spend time monitoring. Monitoring also doesn't really prevent identify theft. In other words, better safe than sorry.

Monitoring is totally passive.

"better safe than sorry" is a stifling maxim to live by.

At the other extreme, YOLO is a stupid one. People buy insurance all the time. I bet you have some yourself. It seems odd to fight against such a simple thing as a credit freeze, and perhaps it is not as onerous to others as it appears to be to you.

I hope you are never sorry.

The problem is, once something gets on your credit report, it can often be a hassle to get it off. And the onus is completely on you to do so. You end up playing phone tag, potentially for years, with the firm that opened the fraudulent account, as well as all the reporting agencies.

So personally I feel it better to prevent the whole thing to begin with.

Also I'm not familiar with those free credit monitoring apps, but it seems like in all likelihood a "free" credit monitoring app is going to sell your data...

How is freezing your credit "going overboard?"