yeah i was going to say because when i signed up to robinhood and gave them my arm, leg, hands, feet and more (bank account number, picture of my license, etc) they sent me an email telling me I needed to remove the freeze on my credit report.
Ummm no those freezes are there to stay and gives me some piece of mind!
PINs for freezes seems to be a thing of the past. I recently unfroze all of my credit reports momentarily so they could be accessed, and none of the big three asked for the PIN. They each have their own login and as soon as you authenticate to that, you're good.
Having a freeze is actually supposed to prevent any pull at all, which is why Experian has an option to unfreeze. The fraud alert is a separate action though that states you have been a victim of identity theft.
I've had mine frozen for years. Unfrozen it once to buy a house and a second time to buy a car. Not a problem. As a side benefit, it keeps me from applying for random credit cards.
I don't know if it denies the agencies the value of your data, but maybe so, because they clearly don't want you to do it.
One of the three's PINs are automatically set, just as the date string from when you froze your credit. Legitimately something like 20191218. You could relatively easily guess them.
One of the three removed the freeze by me just calling and asking, never providing a PIN.
One of the three was alright. I set the PIN to something of my choosing. I had to call, provide all my info and then the PIN to remove it.
The state of credit freezing across the three big companies is an absolute joke.
It sounds like this would alert you to potential fraud, but not prevent it from happening. You'd still have the headache of undoing the damage, although that may be easier if you find out sooner.
If you freeze your credit, it basically prevents anyone from opening any new credit under your name. The reason for this is that any lender (car, mortgage, credit card, etc...) first would want to see your credit history, to determine how credit worthy you are. If they can't do that, they will not lend.
I'm waiting for the headline one day soon that hackers were able to unfreeze people's profiles and commit fraud under these accounts anyway. It's just another database entry somewhere, which says "freeze". All these systems are vulnerable and can be penetrated.
The credit freeze stops the agencies from sharing your credit report until you remove the freeze. We think this is a lot more control than you have without a freeze! This, and having a local copy of your data are both important steps we can all take now on the path to bigger changes.
Freezing doesn't protect the information, but it does protect your credit account from being added to. Once frozen, you are almost in a 2FA scenario where creditors are required to request any new accounts or credit hits, and the credit agency is required to then obtain your approval using the private information only you (should) know.
Also another crazy thing is freezing your credit is meaningless with Experian. You and or any hacker can get your freeze pin by using your personal info that is now public. They don't even bother with any two way verification offering!
Others on HN have recommended this before and I finally went ahead and froze my credit reports with the credit agencies. I haven't missed it in the last six-months. If I ever need a car load or credit card, I can temporarily unfreeze with specific agencies to grant access to the creditor. Here's the numbers:
Equifax — 1-800-349-9960
Experian — 1-888-397-3742
TransUnion — 1-888-909-8872
Innovis — 1-800-540-2505
A lawyer friend of mine who specializes in identity theft told me this was too extreme a way to go and that I should sign up for Credit Karma. But isn't that just opening up yet another access point to thieves? Plus, I feel that freezing my credit denies these reporting agencies the value of data.
I get that - I was just sharing the information about a Fraud Alert, which unlike a "freeze" is free and allows you to still apply for credit without lifting the alert.
I froze my credit for free in response to the Equifax breach, and it gave me a little more piece of mind. However, I just had the experience of thawing my credit and I discovered that the companies are back to charging you for the freeze.
I had the pins for all the thaws and they went relatively smoothly, except for Equifax, who required me to call and answer ridiculous questions about banking I did over a decade ago (and suggested I would always have to do this regardless of the fact that I had my pin and an account).
I shudder to think what would happen if I lost my pin numbers. Especially if I didn't realize until right before I needed a credit check.
I have freezes and fraud alerts on my credit reports so in reality they can't really do anything (unless they also had access to my email, physical address, phone, and the PIN I used to freeze them)
That's not the issue. They are required to immediately remove incorrect information from your credit report. A freeze prevents them from reporting your credit to third parties (i.e. it prevents them from doing business). So, they hate people who freeze their credit. Their strategy seems to be to make having a credit freeze so onerous that you won't do it so they can continue to sell your information to their customers.
Ummm no those freezes are there to stay and gives me some piece of mind!
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