PROTECT YOUR MONEY BY FREEZING YOUR CREDIT NOW
Your personal financial information is worth stealing. And it is also worth defending. The unfortunate truth is you cannot stop your identity from being stolen, but you can still protect your credit and money when your identity is stolen.
We all go out of our way to defend our Social Security Number and credit card information, we do not answer phone calls from Wichita or Biloxi or Chevy Chase (the place and the person), and we uncontrollably yell at ourselves with crazy eyes in the mirror every time we open an email attachment from a suspicious address. Sadly, while we are doing everything we can to protect our financial information, it is more likely someone else will be to blame for our identity being stolen. Remember when your personal information was stolen from Equifax / Capital One / eBay / Target / X Formerly-known-as-and-should-still-be-known-as-Twitter / 23andMe / Myspace? No? Well, it happened, and it will happen again (data breaches, not Myspace, we can sleep soundly knowing Myspace will never happen again). And that stolen identity can be used to set up new credit cards, mortgages, fake phone accounts with T-Mobile, and other bills that creditors will come after you for repayment.
And, because our personal information and ID is now on file with your health insurance company, apartment building, payroll and credit card companies, numerous state and federal government agencies, and every subsidiary of any company you have ever done business with, you absolutely will have your identity stolen at some point in the next decade and someone will try to rack up a whole lot of debt and remedial work at your expense.
While you cannot stop your identity from being stolen, you CAN protect your credit from the consequences of such a breach. You can – and should – freeze your credit online FOR FREE with the three credit agencies: Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. That way, when someone who has stolen your personal information, probably due to no fault of your own, tries to open a new credit card, T-Mobile account, line of credit or loan in your name, the credit agencies will not share your credit history, meaning the service provider will not extend your credit to the fraudster.
The process of setting up a credit freeze is simple:
- Go to Equifax, Experian and TransUnion’s “freeze” website to enroll.
- Yes, you will need to enter your Social Security Number online to begin the process. While the second guessing of whether to upload your SS# will likely give you an embolism, remember that your SS# is already easier to access than those breath mints at the exit of a diner, so take the plunge and enter it into the website.
- Answer the questions related to your background, such as “Which address did you live at in 2002” and “What type of car have you driven.” Even if your sister gave you her Mazda Miata after high school
- Create your accounts and save your logins and passwords.
- Freeze your credit.
If and when you do need a new service provider to access your credit, you can temporarily unfreeze your credit for as long as you wish by merely logging into each agency’s website. You can also pay for additional services if you wish, but the FREE freeze is the most important step to protect yourself from someone stealing your credit.
Freeze your credit now to prevent fraudsters from taking advantage of other company’s sloppy tech firewalls (especially T-Mobile) and stealing your identity so they can steal your money.
