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Equifax hack exposes personal info of 143 million people (1 Viewer)

I'm beginning to feel like freezing your credit reports should be the standard way to go in general. It becomes a problem if you want to open a new credit card, or take out a loan... but I don't plan on doing those things anytime soon. And if/when I do, I can simply temporarily lift the freeze for that particular creditor. Seems about the most secure thing one can do. And it's way better than paying $20-30 per month for credit monitoring companies.

 
culdeus said:
Can someone tell me if lifelock is good people or not
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From experience--when I signed up to get Directv, they ran a credit check as part of the process.  I immediately got both email and text alerts from Lifelock asking if I had initiated the request.

 
Tom Skerritt said:
I'm beginning to feel like freezing your credit reports should be the standard way to go in general. It becomes a problem if you want to open a new credit card, or take out a loan... but I don't plan on doing those things anytime soon. And if/when I do, I can simply temporarily lift the freeze for that particular creditor. Seems about the most secure thing one can do. And it's way better than paying $20-30 per month for credit monitoring companies.
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Let's say you want to signup for a new credit card for a sweet bonus offer, how do you know which ones to release?

 
NutterButter said:
Don't you have to call the creditor to find out which bureau they use so you lift the freeze at the appropriate one or were you planning on doing it at all of them?
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Either/or I guess. I would assume that if you can find out which one they use, you could allow access for just that one. Otherwise would have to allow access for all three.

This is a monumental PITFA no matter how one deals with it. I just feel that by putting a freeze on my credit will prevent me from obsessing over identity theft every day of my life.

 
It would be really cool if the creditor mentioned the bureau they use on the application so you don't have to call them to find out.  Even cooler would be if they reimbursed you for any unfreezing/freezing cost.   That would be a cool creditor in my book.   

 
TheFanatic said:
It took me about 5 minutes each for Innovis, Equifax and Experian, but Transunion just keeps telling me they are experiencing technical difficulties. 
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After striking out on Transunion (after they charged my credit card) I called in. Couldn't verify over the phone and transfered me to a line with a busy signal. Called in again, was transferred to an active line that was a ringing phone over and over and over broken up by "All lines are busy." No hold music. Absolutely terrible on all levels. I don't know why I would ever use TransUnion for anything, but if I do in the future, I will try to use a competitor. 

 
urbanhack said:
This is really good reading if something were to happen to you.

https://twitter.com/patio11/status/906384638733467648?refsrc=email&s=11
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Good link. Here's the same guy's blog post:  http://www.kalzumeus.com/2017/09/09/identity-theft-credit-reports/

Also, here is the official website for getting your once per 12 month free credit report from the three credit agencies. Do not contact the agencies directly to get one. Note you get one from each agency per 12 months, so you could split them up and, say, order from a different one every 4 months to keep a more constant eye on it.  (Note: Link obtained from the FTC instructions as the only place you should go for these free reports.)

 
For those of you who want to be careful, make sure to enroll your credit and debit cards into purchase alerts.  You can get texts or emails when your card is used for large dollar purchases, with certain types of merchants, international transactions, or other criteria of your choosing.

An increasing trend is for thieves who have compromised credit/debit card information to also use your social, birth date, etc., and call into the credit/debit issuer to alert them that you're traveling or making other atypical purchases.  This can result in the card issuer exempting your card from or being more lenient with normal fraud monitoring.

 
Juxtatarot said:
For those of you who want to be careful, make sure to enroll your credit and debit cards into purchase alerts.  You can get texts or emails when your card is used for large dollar purchases, with certain types of merchants, international transactions, or other criteria of your choosing.

An increasing trend is for thieves who have compromised credit/debit card information to also use your social, birth date, etc., and call into the credit/debit issuer to alert them that you're traveling or making other atypical purchases.  This can result in the card issuer exempting your card from or being more lenient with normal fraud monitoring.
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sucks for the credit card companies when i dispute those charges

 
NutterButter said:
sucks for the credit card companies when i dispute those charges
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I've found that most people like to reduce fraud if there are measures they can take that aren't too inconvenient.  It can also be nice to catch fruad before your mortgage payment bounces after your checking account is wiped out or your credit card is declined when you're paying your dinner bill.

 
Its frightening the state of the online resources for these companies.  I'm so glad the government doesn't just manage this.  Its so much better having 3 or 4 terribly managed companies doing it.

So equifax tells me the system is unavailable.   Experian just shows a gray screen with the word loading.   Transunion asks me to log in with my account which exists and then they give me an error saying my account already exits.   :lol:   That's all you can really do.

 
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Who's doing the credit freeze at all three bureau's?

MN says it's free to start/lift/remove the Freeze if you're a victim of ID Theft. I would think this qualifies, but the Equifax site says you need a police report or police case number. Seems redundant when it's their breach.  :loco:

Are you doing the TrustedID Premier too for free? I like that it includes ID Theft Insurance but obviously it doesn't substitute for credit freezes. 

 
Johnny Rock said:
Who's doing the credit freeze at all three bureau's?

MN says it's free to start/lift/remove the Freeze if you're a victim of ID Theft. I would think this qualifies, but the Equifax site says you need a police report or police case number. Seems redundant when it's their breach.  :loco:

Are you doing the TrustedID Premier too for free? I like that it includes ID Theft Insurance but obviously it doesn't substitute for credit freezes. 
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I think its only I'd theft if someone actually does something with your info like open up a credit card. 

 
This is such BS.   Equifax should automatically put a freeze for every person that had info compromised and pay to do the same on the other two.  They're the ones that Fed up

 
Since the fees for freezes are often limited by state laws, I wonder if we'll soon see states rush to pass new laws making them free.

 
Godsbrother said:
This is such BS.   Equifax should automatically put a freeze for every person that had info compromised and pay to do the same on the other two.  They're the ones that Fed up
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I'm sorry, all available resources have been diverted to lobbying efforts.  Please try back next year.

 
Godsbrother said:
This is such BS.   Equifax should automatically put a freeze for every person that had info compromised and pay to do the same on the other two.  They're the ones that Fed up
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I suggested above that freezing be the default and people didn't like that. 

Double authentication should be the norm. Just give me the starter Freeze password when I register my infant for her SS #. 

 
I am thinking of just signing up for LifeLoc for $20/month.  It doesn't freeze your accounts but it does alert you immediately and works to close/resolve fraud attempts

ETA:  After further review it looks like the best plan is to file for a free credit monitoring and then freeze credit with all 3 credit bureaus.  What a pain in the butt

 
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Dan Lambskin said:
You nerds done worrying about this yet? I assume you're the same people with a 900 credit score that worry a soft inquiry might drop you to an 895
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I have an 850 FICO score and 820+ on all the major credit bureaus.  I'm not worried about a soft inquiry.  I'm worried about someone named Boris or Ho Fat having my social security number, credit card numbers, etc.  I've already had to deal with identity theft 5-6 times on Playstation Network, Target, Walmart, etc. I'm starting to get tired of it.  I've always made fun of my mother for refusing to put her CC# anywhere online and still doing all her shopping at B&M stores, paying all her bills by check, etc.  Now I'm wondering if I'm the schmuck.

 
It's like these guys have the keys to my house.  They've given my address to criminals.  Now I need to pay them to lock and unlock it. They will lock one of the 4 doors for free though.  THANKS!

 
TheFanatic said:
GregR said:
No, you can do it over the web. https://www.experian.com/freeze/center.html
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Right. But they will mail you your pin. You can get the freeze put on right away. 
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If you prefer to get the pin via snail mail you can go that route.  But you can do the entire transaction online including getting your pin.

I did all three online yesterday, no snail mail needed. Only Transunion did I have a problem with (think they had bad data in the list of questions they asked) and had to call and was able to choose a pin on the phone.

 
GregR said:
If you prefer to get the pin via snail mail you can go that route.  But you can do the entire transaction online including getting your pin.

I did all three online yesterday, no snail mail needed. Only Transunion did I have a problem with (think they had bad data in the list of questions they asked) and had to call and was able to choose a pin on the phone.
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One of them didn't give me a pin. They are mailing it to me. Wait, it's Innovis. 

 
WTF is Innovis?

Any thoughts on fraud alerts vs freezing your credit?  If fraud alerts require authorization from you via phone/e-mail to open a new account, shouldn't that theoretically protect you (though not as well) as freezing your credit?  I have a real philosophical problem with paying to freeze my credit with bureaus to which I never even authorized data transmission due to a breach at one of them.  It's somewhat galling.

 
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