Security freezes must be placed on your credit reports separately at each nationwide credit bureau (Equifax, Experian and TransUnion). Also see the Identity Theft Resource Center’s How to Place a Credit Freeze guide. This means if you’re applying for credit buying a car or requesting a loan, for instance you’ll need to temporarily lift or permanently remove your security freeze to allow a credit check. You need only place a fraud alert with one credit bureau, which will notify the others.įor more information about protecting yourself against identity theft, see The Equifax Data Breach: What You Should Do. A fraud alert signals to businesses that you may have been a victim of identity theft and that they should verify your identity before opening any new accounts. The new law also lengthens the duration of a fraud alert that you can place on your credit file from 90 days to one year. It’s free whether you lift or thaw a freeze. And after that time period has elapsed, the credit will freeze again-no additional action is necessary on the part of the consumer.” Lifting a credit freeze, on the other hand, removes the freeze until the consumer actively requests the freeze from the credit bureau again. The freeze page will guide you through the remaining steps to place or manage your freeze. Follow the instructions to place or manage your freeze. For example, if a consumer knows they will be applying for credit, they can request a thaw for a day, or a week or another specified time period. You can place, temporarily lift, or permanently remove a freeze on your Equifax credit report. “A thaw (or unfreezing) of one’s credit allows them to temporarily remove the freeze for a specified period of time. “Understanding the correct terminology is important,” says Eva Velasquez, CEO and president of the Identity Theft Resource Center. The freeze remains in effect until you take steps to remove it-either temporarily or permanently.
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