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posted by Fnord666 on Sunday September 16 2018, @05:34PM   Printer-friendly
from the chilly-details dept.

In a Few Days, Credit Freezes Will Be Fee-Free:

Later this month, all of the three major consumer credit bureaus will be required to offer free credit freezes to all Americans and their dependents. Maybe you’ve been holding off freezing your credit file because your home state currently charges a fee for placing or thawing a credit freeze, or because you believe it’s just not worth the hassle. If that accurately describes your views on the matter, this post may well change your mind.

A credit freeze — also known as a “security freeze” — restricts access to your credit file, making it far more difficult for identity thieves to open new accounts in your name.

Currently, many states allow the big three bureaus — Equifax, Experian and TransUnion — to charge a fee for placing or lifting a security freeze. But thanks to a federal law enacted earlier this year, after Sept. 21, 2018 it will be free to freeze and unfreeze your credit file and those of your children or dependents throughout the United States.

[...] According to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, when the new law takes effect on September 21, Equifax, Experian and TransUnion must each set up a webpage for requesting fraud alerts and credit freezes.

The law also provides additional ID theft protections to minors. Currently, some state laws allow you to freeze a child’s credit file, while others do not. Starting Sept. 21, no matter where you live you’ll be able to get a free credit freeze for kids under 16 years old.

[...] In addition, the law requires the big three bureaus to offer free electronic credit monitoring services to all active duty military personnel. It also changes the rules for “fraud alerts,” which currently are free but only last for 90 days. With a fraud alert on your credit file, lenders or service providers should not grant credit in your name without first contacting you to obtain your approval — by phone or whatever other method you specify when you apply for the fraud alert.

[...] A key unanswered question about these changes is whether the new dedicated credit bureau freeze sites will work any more reliably than the current freeze sites operated by the big three bureaus. The Web and social media are littered with consumer complaints — particularly over the past year — about the various freeze sites freezing up and returning endless error messages, or simply discouraging consumers from filing a freeze thanks to insecure Web site components.

It will be interesting to see whether these new freeze sites will try to steer consumers away from freezes and toward other in-house offerings, such as paid credit reports, credit monitoring, or “credit lock” services. All three big bureaus tout their credit lock services as an easier and faster alternative to freezes.


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 16 2018, @05:55PM (11 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 16 2018, @05:55PM (#735706)

    I don't ever want a credit card, etc (I figure anyone loaning out money has much more info than me and is scamming me somehow) but also don't want to give these proven incompetent companies the info they want to "freeze" it.

    • (Score: 2) by Whoever on Sunday September 16 2018, @08:41PM (8 children)

      by Whoever (4524) on Sunday September 16 2018, @08:41PM (#735732) Journal

      I don't ever want a credit card, etc (I figure anyone loaning out money has much more info than me and is scamming me somehow) but also don't want to give these proven incompetent companies the info they want to "freeze" it.

      Not having a credit card doesn't protect you from these companies.

      • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 16 2018, @08:53PM (7 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 16 2018, @08:53PM (#735737)

        If my "credit" isnt frozen by default I don't see what I have to do with whatever scams other people fall for by someone using my name.

        • (Score: 3, Informative) by arslan on Sunday September 16 2018, @10:50PM (6 children)

          by arslan (3462) on Sunday September 16 2018, @10:50PM (#735761)

          Uhh, I dunno, maybe the hassle of proving it wasn't you that did those crime when the electronic trail shows you did? The hassle of ruined plans when you want to capitalize on your clean credit rating, i.e. getting a mortgage after months of planning only to find you can't? The list goes on...

          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 17 2018, @04:42AM (5 children)

            by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 17 2018, @04:42AM (#735857)

            Well, I shouldnt have to prove it wasnt me, in america its supposed to be presumed innocent. A mortgage is just as bad as a credit card, dont want one.

            • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 17 2018, @05:08AM (2 children)

              by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 17 2018, @05:08AM (#735863)

              I suppose you walk everywhere too. Because you need liability insurance on your car, and your credit rating figures into that.

              • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 17 2018, @01:53PM

                by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 17 2018, @01:53PM (#735960)

                Don't need liability in all states: https://www.thebalance.com/states-with-no-car-insurance-requirements-4121731 [thebalance.com]

                What we need is for the "lawmakers" to grow a set and do something about this. The "credit" agencies (really, debt agencies) should never have been allowed to do this. And why on earth is our SSN tied to this crap? SSN is supposed to be for a single purpose, nothing to do with credit. It's far too broken to fix at this point. What we need is to wipe the slate clean (meaning Washington) and start over.

              • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 17 2018, @05:36PM

                by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 17 2018, @05:36PM (#736075)

                I just consider car insurance another tax I cant do anything about. I tend to have the crappiest car for my needs and cheapest insurance possible. I actually should try to switch the insurance to being per mile since I drive so infrequently...

            • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 17 2018, @01:49PM

              by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 17 2018, @01:49PM (#735959)

              If only...

            • (Score: 2) by darkfeline on Monday September 17 2018, @06:25PM

              by darkfeline (1030) on Monday September 17 2018, @06:25PM (#736107) Homepage

              Well, people shouldn't commit crimes either, but alas reality isn't so simple. When you've got debtors pounding your door and trying to confiscate your stuff you'll realize that asserting principles doesn't get you very far.

              --
              Join the SDF Public Access UNIX System today!
    • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 17 2018, @02:17AM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 17 2018, @02:17AM (#735831)

      I don't care for credit either. Debt is another way those with power keep regular folks from acting up e.g., "Need to pay the bills, can't protest working conditions.,"

      But, I finally relented and got some rewards cards that pay better "interest" on money I spend than I can get on money I save (safely). Amex 3% back on groceries and gas. Amazon Chase 3% back at amazon.com (and no fees when traveling internationally). Vanguard 2% back on everything. Paying anything I can on card (med bills, etc.) makes it add up to real money being rebated. The tracking bothers me, but I was already using ATM card, just not getting paid anything for giving up my purchase data.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 17 2018, @05:19AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 17 2018, @05:19AM (#735867)

        If the tracking actually bothered you, you would have been using cash. I do that as much as possible.

  • (Score: 4, Informative) by darkpixel on Sunday September 16 2018, @06:29PM (8 children)

    by darkpixel (4281) on Sunday September 16 2018, @06:29PM (#735710)

    Why is this even a thing? "Our shit is really insecure and can ruin your life, so we created this super-huge-and-annoying hurdle that *you* as a customer have to do in order to prevent us from ruining your life when a bad guy does something wrong."

    • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 16 2018, @06:42PM (6 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 16 2018, @06:42PM (#735713)

      Why would any business make it easy for the product to decide not to be sold?

      • (Score: 2) by BK on Sunday September 16 2018, @08:33PM (5 children)

        by BK (4868) on Sunday September 16 2018, @08:33PM (#735728)

        Unfortunately, this. GP misses the point that the folks with the credit rating are not the customers. More like victims lately.

        --
        ...but you HAVE heard of me.
        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 16 2018, @09:03PM (3 children)

          by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 16 2018, @09:03PM (#735740)

          This is very true.

          But so is this conversation
          "Hey can you hack into the credit agency and fix my credit"
          "Why?"
          "Well I do not want anyone knowing I did not pay this car off and skipped out on the last 3 months of rent"
          "Well sounds like you *ARE* a bad credit risk"
          "yeah but can you fix that for me so I can get another car?"
          "Yes, Yes I can fix your credit?"
          "Oh really?"
          "yes.... pay your fucking bills"

          He wants to continue to rip people off and not get caught.

          • (Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 16 2018, @09:15PM (1 child)

            by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 16 2018, @09:15PM (#735744)

            If they were so worried about that they would "freeze" your credit by default.

            • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 16 2018, @09:34PM

              by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 16 2018, @09:34PM (#735746)

              Do not disagree with that.

          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 17 2018, @05:23AM

            by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 17 2018, @05:23AM (#735868)

            Or maybe he just doesn't want them to store massive amounts of information about him, only for a criminal hacker to later obtain that information because the security of these three companies is nearly nonexistent. But we can't punish them for having poor security despite the fact that it's nearly impossible to not deal with these companies, oh no.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 17 2018, @01:55PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 17 2018, @01:55PM (#735962)

          If we would wake up and realize it's not a "credit rating" but a "debt rating", we'd change our minds. Think about. Try going 5 years cash only and see what happens to your "credit rating". It's truly a measure of your debt.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 16 2018, @10:00PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 16 2018, @10:00PM (#735751)

      True.

      But....

      Equifax (and the other two of the big three) make money by selling your info to other companies.

      A credit freeze deprives them of that revenue stream. Which is why they try to physiologically trick you into taking one of their 'fee per month' protection racket plans rather than performing a full freeze.

      So, the absolute best thing anyone can do to stick it to these companies is to actually freeze one's credit. Yes, it is a pain for you to have to go through with turning on the freeze. But then once on your can rest assured in the knowledge that you've deprived them of some of the money they would otherwise have been making from selling your data around.

  • (Score: 4, Funny) by realDonaldTrump on Sunday September 16 2018, @10:30PM (2 children)

    by realDonaldTrump (6614) on Sunday September 16 2018, @10:30PM (#735757) Homepage Journal

    Folks, enjoy your FREE Credit Freezes. Part of our wonderful Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act. Which Senator Crapo, Mike Crapo from Idaho -- one of our beautiful, and very LOYAL, Republicans -- worked very hard on. Did a great job on. In a very bipartisan way. And which I signed back in May. With one of my best signatures. Big, beautiful signature on that one and I'm very proud of it. Big step in fixing the Dodd Frank DISASTER. Big promise and I'm so proud to keep it. Very big deal for our Country. For American workers, who I always always put first. And for small businesses all around our magnificent Country.

    Let's also thank Steve Daines. Thank you, Steve. Incredible job. John Kennedy. Thank you very much, John. Heidi Heitkamp. Heidi, thank you very much. Appreciate it. David Perdue. Oh, I love David. What a great guy he is. Jim Risch. Jim, thank you. What a great lawyer. I learned all about you. One of the great lawyers. I think I have to use him. Tim Scott. Tim. Thank you, Tim. Great job. It’s a great achievement. And Pat Toomey, who really does know the financial world, I can tell you from experience. Right, Pat? Great job. Also, representatives -- Jeb Hensarling -- fantastic, fantastic job. Thank you, Jeb!!! whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/remarks-president-trump-signing-s-2155-economic-growth-regulatory-relief-consumer-protection-act [whitehouse.gov]

    • (Score: 1, Troll) by realDonaldTrump on Sunday September 16 2018, @10:58PM

      by realDonaldTrump (6614) on Sunday September 16 2018, @10:58PM (#735762) Homepage Journal

      (cont) Dodd-Frank was an Obama number. And it's one of the worst things that ever happened to our Country. It made it impossible for bankers to function. It made it VERY HARD for bankers to loan money for people to create jobs, for people with businesses to create jobs. I said, that has to stop. The Dodd-Frank was something that they said could not be touched. We're dismantling it. And it's a beautiful thing for Citi, for Chase. Our biggest banks, who we love. They were having tremendous problems because of the so-called supplemental leverage ratio. Which is Obama talk for, they have to keep money in the bank, they can't loan it all out. Dumb! We made that much easier for them.

      And honestly, a lot of great Democrats knew that it had to be done and they joined us in the effort. Heidi Heitkamp from North Dakota -- who I already thanked -- Jon Tester from Montana, Claire McCaskill from Missouri, Joe Donnelly from Indiana, and many more. And there’s something so nice about bipartisan. And we’re going to have to try more of it. OK? Let’s do more of it, all right?

    • (Score: -1, Troll) by fakefuck39 on Monday September 17 2018, @01:29AM

      by fakefuck39 (6620) on Monday September 17 2018, @01:29AM (#735813)

      there's an snl skit where jim carey tells someone to go to hell and keeps doing it. i do wonder how liquified a brain has to be to find the same type of annoying rant satisfying. I'm going to guess it's the guy who literally has nothing smart to say, is rejected by women and society in general, and is butt-fucking ugly from birth.

  • (Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Monday September 17 2018, @12:50AM (2 children)

    by MichaelDavidCrawford (2339) Subscriber Badge <mdcrawford@gmail.com> on Monday September 17 2018, @12:50AM (#735796) Homepage Journal

    I'm doing this to protest the use of SSNs as database keys

    --
    Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 22 2018, @04:41PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 22 2018, @04:41PM (#738585)

    This offer is not global, it's for US citizens (mailing addresses? idk). Please make headlines nation-agnostic. Title "In a Few Days, Credit Freezes Will Be Fee-Free for USA Residents" (or Citizens or whatever) would be much better.

    If this were for German citizens you can bet "for Germans" would be in the headline!

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