They notify the other bureaus, but that doesn’t create a credit freeze at the other ones. Yes, it’s dumb.
I did Experian first, they charged me $10. Then I did the other two a few minutes later, and they didn’t ask for payment. I don’t know why.
I froze my credit at all three of them recently, but I won’t tell you exactly when. Why would I not tell you? Because Equifax, demonstrating their almost breathtaking incompetence, uses the time-date stamp when you submit as your PIN.
It wasn’t a line of credit, but it took me several tries to open my current bank account because of those dumbass credit agency questions.
It’s an unnecessary step, then. It’s like if the system were such that anyone could get a line of credit if they knew your name and street address. You could re-issue all street addresses in the country to make the current cache of addresses useless, and then fix the system, or you could just fix the system.
SSNs shouldn’t be secret. Up until about 15 years ago, the military printed them on everything – ID cards, every piece of paperwork, orders, citations, etc. And that was fine, it’s just a number used to identify someone. If we fix the financial system, you can keep your unique number, print it on your forehead, and nobody will be able to do anything with it that they can’t already do with your street address.
I now have freezes and PIN’s for the 3 main credit data agencies as well as freezes on the smaller two (cannot remember their names) and have also filled out the forms to stop unsolicited credit card offers for life.
Fuck them and the horses they rode in on. I’m hoping we never have to unfreeze any of them.
I just did this. I waited for things to settle down. Equifax was free - and pretty simple.
It turns out that in California credit freezes are free if you are over 65 (yet another advantage of geezerdom) so Esperian never even asked me for a credit card. It was simple also.
Transunion, on the other hand, hides the freeze somewhere. Look it up, apply, and it asks for a credit card, but never says if there is a charge or asks you to agree to it. Surprise! There is! (As I found out in the receipt email.) The good news is that I cancelled immediately, sat fifteen minutes on the phone to reach billing, and got the charge cancelled. Then I found the secret place to do it for free.
But Equifax was much cleaner than the reports I’ve read indicated, so they seem to have listened.
More good news - the CEO just got booted, lost his bonus, and is going to help in the transition for no pay.
I just put my freezes on last night. I paid $5 each for Experian and TransUnion, and $0 for Equifax. I did it all online.
Joey Tightlips each form specifically said “You have to go to the other bureaus to freeze your credit there. You’ve only just frozen your credit with us.”
I guess that’s symbolically a good thing, though he’s made $70 million just off stock sales in a year, so it’s not like really anything will hurt him. Ever.
Sorry, can’t resist bumping this thread for this:
While randomly perusing old Derf comix at gocomics, I came across this prescient strip (one of many such) from 2014:
(Note in particular the last panel.)
Ha! That is how I feel.
As an update, I have everything locked down. Freezes on the three major credit agencies along with the fourth smaller one and also the one that does bank accounts. I also did the lifetime opt-out of credit card offers.
I went on a binge of opting out of junk mail/phonebooks/catalogs a couple years ago and the main junk we get is credit card offers. Now that I’ve stopped them, I can go multiple days with no mail. About the only junk we get is the local junk mail they put in every mailbox. I’ve gone paperless for all of my business dealings I can as well. I’m going to put the USPS out of work.