Jan 31st is the last day for the free Equifax credit freeze

[angie_nrs]

https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/blog/2017/09/free-credit-freezes-equifax

So tomorrow is the last day to place a freeze on your credit for free from Equifax. I can't believe this is the best they can do for exposing all of our personal information. I don't ever recall giving them permission to collect my data, yet they constantly collect it and hold it ransom.....and expose it for the world to see apparently. I still haven't heard what they are going to do going forward to protect our information, so basically they've gotten away with it. No accountability........it seems as if that's the norm anymore! But, I digress......

Just thought you might appreciate a reminder.

 

[Caribou]

Thanks! Done and done.

I had to go back through a couple of old addresses before they found my record. Be ready with pen and paper. At the end of the call they give you a ten digit code in case you ever want to unlock your credit. They only give it once. My guess is that they will double charge you to unlock your credit without the code.

The recording said that this free locking/unlocking would be available till 30 June '18.

If enough people lock their credit on Equifax it could become financially unviable as creditors will automatically go to the other two rather than waste their time.

 

[angie_nrs]

Hmmm, maybe they extended the deadline to the end of June.

It shouldn't cost anything to freeze your information anyways, since permission was never granted for them to collect it.

I filled out the form online. I read the disclaimer and there was no mention of giving up your rights to sue them. I remember a while ago that folks were really PO'd about that, so they took that out of the agreement. I also read that folks had a really difficult time with Equifax if they lost that 10 digit PIN. I'm keeping a copy in the safe b/c I doubt I'll ever unfreeze it as I have zero plans on ever getting a loan.

I hope it does make Equifax unviable.......serves them right! I also hope the other 2 have learned something from the carelessness that Equifax exhibited.

 

[Weedygarden]

Thank you, Angie. This has been on my mind lately, wondering about this deadline.

 

[havasu]

I locked it on day one and have not released it, even to buy a car. Seems it is unnecessary since nobody on the West Coast even uses it.

 

[angie_nrs]

I just checked today and Caribou was correct. They extended the deadline to June 30, 2018.

https://www.freeze.equifax.com/Freeze/jsp/SFF_PersonalIDInfo.jsp

Something else I might mention is, if you are concerned about ID theft (and who isn't after this fiasco) you might want to consider contacting your home owners insurance carrier. I added an ID theft protection policy that covers up to $15,000 in expenses associated with ID theft cleanup for anyone in our household for $7 per year.

I thought I'd also mention.....you can get a free credit report from each of the credit bureaus once per year. So, every 2 months, I send in a request by mail so it looks something like this:

Jan - Experian - me
March - Transunion - DH
May - Equifax - me
July - Experian - DH
Sept - Transunion - me
Nov - Equifax - DH

When you step it this way, you check your credit report for fraudulent activity every 2 months for free since if my credit is affected, DH's likely is too. I just put reminders on my calendar every 2 months to send in my request. I keep a record of the dates on each report b/c you have to make sure it's been a year since the last request was sent or they won't comply, even if it's only a day or two prior to that one year mark.

Hope this comes in handy for ya'll.

 

[Weedygarden]

I just checked today and Caribou was correct. They extended the deadline to June 30, 2018.

https://www.freeze.equifax.com/Freeze/jsp/SFF_PersonalIDInfo.jsp

Something else I might mention is, if you are concerned about ID theft (and who isn't after this fiasco) you might want to consider contacting your home owners insurance carrier. I added an ID theft protection policy that covers up to $15,000 in expenses associated with ID theft cleanup for anyone in our household for $7 per year.

I thought I'd also mention.....you can get a free credit report from each of the credit bureaus once per year. So, every 2 months, I send in a request by mail so it looks something like this:

Jan - Experian - me
March - Transunion - DH
May - Equifax - me
July - Experian - DH
Sept - Transunion - me
Nov - Equifax - DH

When you step it this way, you check your credit report for fraudulent activity every 2 months for free since if my credit is affected, DH's likely is too. I just put reminders on my calendar every 2 months to send in my request. I keep a record of the dates on each report b/c you have to make sure it's been a year since the last request was sent or they won't comply, even if it's only a day or two prior to that one year mark.

Hope this comes in handy for ya'll.

Sometimes my days are just busy from one thing to another, and when the first snafu happened, I meant to take care of it. Then yesterday was another very busy day, so I thought I missed it. Thanks, Caribou and Angie for keeping us informed.