Featured Discussion: Have you ever needed to freeze your credit?

[MariP]

Today on our Intuit Turbo blog, our team published a great new article about How to Freeze Your Credit: Everything You Need to Know.  

Has anyone ever freezed their credit score? If so, why?

What was your experience like and do you have any advice for others who may be thinking about freezing their credit score?

We'd love to hear from you and learn more about your experience!

[MariP]

I'll share my own story as this topic came up recently at lunch with an old coworker who used to work at Experian.

While we were catching up, my old co-worker and I started talking about what what we're up to at work and the topic of credit scores came up.  He said that he recommends that due to the number of data breeches that have happened, that in order to best protect yourself, you should freeze your credit score so that no one will be able to open a fraudulent account in your name. 

While I check my credit score monthly, (knock on wood) I haven't had anyone try to steal my identity yet. I walked away from the conversation thinking that I needed to look into freezing my credit score but in full transparency, it just slipped my mind and I never got around to it.

With today's blog article and the fact that it included direct links to each credit bureau, I want to prioritize going through with it.

Anyone else? Have you thought about freezing your score? And if you have, did you actually do it? 

[JesseJ]

Gotta admit, even though I just read the article posted, it still strikes me as an enormous hassle (even though the article literally finishes with, "it's not a hassle!")... but maybe I'm just oddly fearful of freezing it and being unable to thaw it. 

Echoing the sentiment, if someone has frozen their credit, do tell!

[Codyb0817]

Hey guys I did freeze mine once really not even understanding what it meant. I was getting some weird inquiries and emails and thought like many others bout these breeches. I also go to many many sights in a nite, was trying to get mortgage and all on a house to help my mom due to a total mess that needed fixed and on with living, know what I mean. But I really thought nothing bout it again for month or so,TIL I had cell destroyed lost total track of what site 8 even had did the FrEEZE on. Brrrr. I had total .... Beep...Beep... getting in froze . It was months and trust me when I was thawed as the man said, hehe I had my score as though I was never alive. Im 52 years old and I have paid off dozen vehicles several houses worked since 16yrs. Old.... I even now have my oldest account as less than a year old. So please Do urself a favor...BACK UP YOU LIFE HISTORY WITH ALL 3 TRANSUNION EQUIFAX N ESPERIAN AND STASH UR LOGIN PASSWORDS EVERYTHING MAKE SURE YOUR PROFILE IS VERY COMPLETE MIDDLE NAME, AGE, 3 SECURITY QUESTIONS U DONT WANT ERASED. THE SERVICE 8 MUST ADD IS REALLY KOOL AND WAS. NO ONES FAULT BUT MY OWN. I JUST KNOW TAKE THE ACT VERY SERIOUS AND DO WHERE NO DISTRACTIONS ARE PRESENT . I HOPE THIS HELPS SOMEONE. ITS REALLLY KOOL PROTECTION AND WILL GIVE SOMEONE TIME TO REALLY BUILD A ROBUST SCORE SAFELY IF USED RIGHT. JUST MEMBER BE PRPARED TO PROVE U ARE WHO U ARE IN VERY DETAILED ACCURACY. ILL SHUT UP NOW BEFORE I START HAVING FLASHBACKS AGAIN BOUT IT. BRRR HEHE. GOOD LUCK!!!

[300zxuser]

I would be more interested in knowing how to freeze my credit rather than my credit score.

[MariP]

Hi @300zxuser,

Thanks so much for the question and there was a typo in the original discussion post.  The title should have been about freezing your credit, as you mentioned, rather than freezing your credit score.

I've updated the discussion title to avoid any future confusion.  I appreciate you taking the time to chime in and hope that you'll find the article helpful.

I'd also love to hear more about any thoughts you can share about your interest in freezing your credit?

[CheezWiz]

I think the blog article needs to be updated to reflect the recently enacted law making freeze/thaw free.

[CheezWiz]

I went ahead and froze mine. Took less than 10 minutes via the online portals.
Tried to do my wife's and two of the three went fine but Equifax required us to mail in proof of identity.

[JeffLindner]

Just froze my credit at each of the 3 bureaus and also at the National Consumer Telecom & Utilities Exchange. This is the credit-reporting firm that telecom companies (cellphone, cable, etc.) and utilities (gas, electric, etc.) use to check your creditworthiness when you want to open an account. I had no problems doing it but this could (and should) be a one-stop shop to freeze/thaw/refreeze your credit everywhere. At least there are no fees for this anymore!

[Anonymous]

I've long favored freezing at the three major credit agencies (Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion) and have done so for a while now.  It used to be much more difficult to do the thaw.  There were automated phone systems in play and sometimes one of the agencies would require mailing in or faxing in additional proof, then the online sites became available and made things easier, but even then they would occasionally require additional proof as well.

Today, you can do the equivalent to a freeze at each of the major credit agencies via their mobile app.  Just as many credit card issuers have done, they use the concept of locking and unlocking:

• Equifax: free to use, their app is "Lock and Alert"
• TransUnion: free to use, their app is "myTransUnion"
• Experian: the locking feature appears to be part of their premium plan which start at $10/month, although if you just use the free parts of their app, you can see a regularly updated credit score (FICO Score 😎 and their credit monitoring and alerts; to get the free freeze you still need to go to their website as listed in the article on the blog.

If anyone knows of how to get the Experian lock for free, I'd love to hear about it.  Since locking has become available, I've now switched to using that instead of the classic credit freeze at Equifax and at TransUnion.  Hopefully Experian will join the party and make their lock feature free as well.

Locks are not governed by federal law though, so if you want the most protection, you should still go with the security freeze.  See this article: https://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/finance/credit-lock-and-credit-freeze/

[Shanean18]

My credit is frozen now and I like it I can unfreeze it when I need to at any time

[VRod]

Initially I froze my credit because of fraudulent attempts to open accounts in my name and Tax return schemes. But I’ve kept it frozen because I don’t borrow money anymore and pay cash for everything. 

[Wandalynn69]

I need to unfreeze mine. How do I do it

[300zxuser]

No, I freeze my credit cards.   Never froze credit report.   

[Shanean18]

It depends which credit bureau you froze it you have to log in and unfreeze it or you can call them and they will do it for you