![]() The total time needed to freeze your credit at all three bureaus is less than 20 minutes (in aggregate).There is an argument that placing the credit freeze takes time, that it is a frustratingly burdensome process to temporarily lift (thaw) your credit freeze when needed, and that it can get expensive if you’re regularly thawing Unless you are someone who is applying for new credit every month, you should spend the minimal time and pay the nominal expense to freeze your credit at all three bureaus. This is arguably the most frustrating of advice. Moreover, go ahead and close any open accounts that you do not still use.Īvoid the cost and hassle of freezing your credit unless you are really worried about your identity being stolen. Rather than check your credit score, go ahead and review your three credit reports for free at Look for names, addresses, phone numbers, and accounts you do not recognize. You can have a great credit score today while, six months ago, a criminal added a new address to your file and has been racking up huge charges in your name. Your credit score does not tell you if there are unexplained credit card accounts, addresses, or charges in your name. You should check it before you plan to apply for a mortgage or a new loan. Your credit score helps determine if a lender should issue you credit. I’ve heard people recommend checking your credit score in the wake of the Equifax news. You can frustrate yourself and spend time trying to enroll for the free service but just do not assume that you are protected by this service alone. One year of monitoring is not adequate and again provides a false sense of security. Second, the free TrustedID Premier only lasts for a year, after which time you are on your own. First, the registration website has been overwhelmed since the Equifax breach news which makes for frustrating outages and a difficult registration process. However, there are a few reasons you should just avoid it. To be clear, this is a free and useful service and so you do no harm by registering. The reality is that a credit freeze provides the ultimate protection at a fraction of the price so consumers should skip the overpriced commercial services and go straight to the credit freeze.Įnroll in the credit monitoring program provided for free by Equifax (Trusted ID Premier). As a result, there is a lot of conflicted misinformation. There is a clear financial motivation for the credit bureaus and businesses to promote and sell these credit monitoring services whereas no one has a financial motivation to promote the credit freeze. The actual locking of doors and windows (credit freeze) costs you somewhere between $0 and $30 - a one-time fee. The delayed alarm systems (credit monitoring services such as LifeLock, Transunion Credit Monitoring or Experian CreditWorks) cost between $120 and $360 every year.
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