Dear editor:

We’ve all received suspicious emails, phone calls or even mailings. Scams come in many forms, and seem to grow in volume year after year. Companies offer “credit monitoring/protection” at a significant monthly cost. However, many people are unaware of a free form of protecting your credit — a “credit freeze.”

What is a credit freeze? When someone tries to take out a loan, signs up for a credit card, even applies for some jobs, the first thing a company will do is run a credit report utilizing one or more of the three major credit bureaus. Scammers may also do this to attempt to access your information for fraudulent purposes. A credit freeze denies access to your credit report without your permission. Each of the three major credit bureaus (Equifax, TransUnion and Experian) offers this service for free.

The advantage of this free service is obvious — denying access to your credit information and preventing fraud. The disadvantage is that your credit report is closed to everyone to access, including you (when “frozen”). However, the service includes an “unfreeze” option. You can temporarily “thaw” your credit report access for a set period of time, or you can permanently remove the freeze.

This service initially became available at a cost, a nominal charge for a freeze and additional charge for thaw. Today, these services are free. When you initially setup your freeze, the credit bureau will ask you a series of questions to verify your identity. Generally, they will give you a multiple choice selection of where you may have lived previously (address or town), companies you may have had loans with, or similar information to validate your identity.

How do you use the freeze/unfreeze? Let’s say you plan on taking out a loan, or applying for a credit card. You can utilize the credit bureau’s website, or call each credit bureau or mail them the appropriate forms and verification documents, and temporarily unfreeze your reports. You can unfreeze just one credit bureau report or all three. If you don’t know which credit bureau your lender or credit card company might use, it’s better to just unfreeze all three credit reports.

To establish your credit freeze, or unfreeze your reports, you can call the three credit bureaus, write them, or go to their website:

Experian:

Call: 888-397-3742

Online: www.experian.com/help/credit-freeze/

Mail: Experian Security Freeze

P.O. Box 9554

Allen, TX 75013

TransUnion:

Call: 800-916-8800

Online: TransUnion: www.transunion.com/credit-freeze

Mail: TransUnion

P.O. Box 160

Woodlyn, PA 19094

Equifax:

Call: 888-298-0045

Online: www.equifax.com/personal/credit-report-services/credit-freeze/

Mail: Equifax Information Services LLC

P.O. Box 105788

Atlanta, GA 30348-5788

Kevin Purdy

Powell