Freeze your credit – a reprise and update
“Millions of people’s personal information has been stolen” appears so frequently in the news that most of us likely give it the same amount of attention as a dandelion growing in the yard. Today, I saw another one of those headlines shedding light on personal information that was stolen from “National Public Data” last April. This was a big one – around 2.9 billion records on many millions of people according to sources such as the Los Angeles Times (see endnotes for web URL).
Ugh.
This particular data breach also involves very sensitive information like names, emails, physical addresses and even Social Security numbers.
Ugh, ugh, ugh and uggggggggghhhhhhhhhh.
While tempting to ignore such headlines, I think it merits a review of your defenses. It is essentially impossible to prevent data theft. Unless you were hyper vigilant over the last two decades and never released your information, or you’ve pulled a Kaiser Soze and only shared publicly a full alter ego, your information is likely compromised as well.
Sigh.
If you want to read more about this particular data breach, here is a pretty good article about it that is not stuck behind a firewall. The article is hosted on WIRED, and authored by Lily Hay Newman, a senior writer at WIRED.
https://www.wired.com/story/national-public-data-breach-leak/
Stolen personal information is only big deal if it ends up being used for a nefarious purpose. There IS a defensive tactic to protect against many of the ways that stolen information gets used for bad purposes (like opening a credit card or loan account in your name). That tactic is known as “Freezing your credit.” Back in 2018, I froze my and my wife’s credit. It has been pretty easy to live our lives with frozen credit since then. This blogpost contains three items:
- A link to a blogpost from 2018 where I described how I froze my credit.
- An update from Casey (a Trail FP employee) on his updated experiences on freezing his credit in 2024
- A description of what I’ve had to do over the last 5 years with frozen credit (in other words, how much of a Pain it’s been). Quick answer – very little pain and LOTS of peace of mind whenever I hear these sorts “stolen personal information” stories.
My original blogpost on how to freeze your credit
Click on the following link to read that story (which includes how to instructions).
What I did to secure my credit information
Casey’s updates on credit freezes
Experian
https://www.experian.com/freeze/center.html
Making an account just requires the last 4 of social security and inputting a phone number. You get a text link to confirm it’s you, and bam! Here’s all your info:
You will be asked to choose some security questions. It would make good sense to choose security questions that are not easily found online. Have you ever tried ctrl+f? It works pretty well. I’d imagine that the AI+cyber thieves are even better at finding your information than ctrl+f.
TransUnion
https://www.transunion.com/credit-freeze/credit-freeze-faq
Summary of TransUnion: create an account. 1 click to freeze/remove/temporarily lift
Less than 10 minutes
Equifax
https://www.equifax.com/personal/credit-report-services/
John’s Experience living with frozen credit – is it a PITA?
There have been only three instances where I had to deal with something:
- We bought a new vehicle and needed an auto loan. Of course if they couldn’t pull our credit, they would not approve a loan. So, the stakes were high. However, it turned out to be no big deal. I asked which credit reporting agency they used. They told me (I think it was Experian). I logged into my Experian account on my phone, and unfroze my credit for 30 days (Fortunately, I’d saved the crucial PIN that allowed me to freeze/unfreeze in a secure password manager. Easy peezy.
- A year ago I was almost talked into signing up for a new credit card at Sierra Trading post because I was going to save like $41. I was already feeling guilty for the purchase I was making, so I think the idea of saving a little would have made it an easier conversation with myself (and maybe with my wife?? ;). That said, the credit freeze blocked me from opening another credit card. Do I care? NO! One less pile of junk mail to deal with. Better than easy peezy. The credit freeze protected me from myself. Did I still buy the stuff from Sierra. Yep. Do I remember what that stuff was? Nope.
- I am pretty sure there was one other time when I had to unfreeze. But, I can’t remember when or how long it took. So, I’ll put that into the “easy peezy” category.
So, all told after 3 years I’ve had to unfreeze my credit twice. It saved me from one extraneous credit card. Has it prevented pain from someone stealing and using our personal information? That of course is impossible to know in the same way that if you lock your car every night you have no idea if it ACTUALLY prevented a thief from stealing your car. But, boy I’d be mad if my car was stolen and I hadn’t locked it!
End Notes
“Massive date breach that includes Social Security numbers may be even worse than suspected.” Los Angeles Times. Jon Healey Deputy Editor. August 16, 2024. https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2024-08-16/massive-data-breach-may-be-even-worse-than-suspected
