Ever heard of a credit report freeze? This lets you lock up your credit report so that no lender can pull your file when attempting to issue credit in your name. In other words – it prevents fraudulent credit activity from potentially occurring.
To get started you simply apply to add a freeze at each the of the three credit reporting agencies including TransUnion, Experian, and Equifax. Most states waive any fees to add or lift the security freeze for victims of identity theft. Some steps waive the fees for all consumers for both adding and lifting the freeze including Indiana and South Carolina. Other states require a nominal fee for this service in the $3 to $10 range to add or remove a lift. Read more at the Consumer Union’s Guide to Security Freezes to get a state by state index of rules and any fees.
Once you have added a freeze all you need to do is just visit a website to temporarily lift the freeze when applying for new credit. I keep my information to remove the freeze in a spreadsheet to make it easy to remember all the account information and it takes me about 10 minutes to make the adjustment across all three credit reporting bureaus when needed.
It is a little step that you can do in order to help prevent you from being a victim of identify theft.