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A PIN for Your Credit
The District of Columbia is the latest to enact the new level of consumer protection, which enables residents to place a so-called "security freeze" on their credit assets, preventing any new lines of credit from being drawn in their name without explicit authorization. Once a freeze has been put in place, you can start a new line of credit only by calling one of the three major credit bureaus and identifying yourself with a secret pass-code. This will temporarily lift the freeze. Once you've purchased your new HDTV/car/house, you can re-instate the freeze and go back to living in (relative) peace of mind. The cost of doing this varies from state to state, but it's around $10 for the freeze and $5 for each temporary unfreeze.
This isn't national yet, but Congress is currently working on a bill that will hopefully change that. The only difference with the proposed federal layer of protection is cost. The "Identity Theft Prevention Act" would cost $30 to lock up your credit assets with all three credit bureaus -- no special deals for couples. You'll get two free unfreezes per year, but they'll cost you $15 a pop after that.
Does anyone else have that annoying yet irresistible "Free Credit Report Dot Com" jingle stuck in their heads?
From Slashdot and The Washington Post
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Comments
6
Subscribe to commentsbachar samawiMay 11th 2007 9:26AM
The ultimate success and wide acceptance of Credit Freeze / Credit Lock will also hinge on the requirement of processing temporary un-freeze / unlock requests in a quick manner. Currently, some states have been successful in requiring the bureaus to process such request in 15 minutes or less. State by state details are available at http://www.creditlock.com/creditlockdownpro.html We have actually been thinking about a credit pin since 2002. That's when we secured our web name, http://www.creditlock.com . When all is said and done, everyone should be able to simply lock and unlock access to their credit in a simple and time efficient manner.
Larry ChambersMay 13th 2007 11:13PM
Why are there 3 sites of reporting? Why does only bad get reported to all and a lot of good get reported to to a couple? What is a perfect score.
S. CoxAug 2nd 2007 9:40AM
I think that's a grand idea, to pay for a freeze on your credit cards. $10. is cheap, compared to someone else finding a way to get into your bank, money etc.
I heard some banks are also taking fingerprints and if you go to the windows you have to do that in order to do business..
S. CoxAug 2nd 2007 9:42AM
A pin is another good way to use your cards.
Esp if it's a bank card, however,it could also work on any card you have. It's another safety feature for everyone.
roddysueAug 3rd 2007 11:32AM
Leave it to the federal gov't to screw things up....I won't use the freeze if I'm limited to only 2 unfreezes per year. You never know when some unexpected thing could happen causing you to want to unlock your credit. If that happens and you've already used up your 2 allocated unfreezes, then you're just up the creek without a paddle. It's ridiculous to have the federal gov't limit our access to our own credit!!!!
BillAug 6th 2007 6:04PM
Wait a minute...hold on....all the pins in the world and "freezes" still don't erase the fact that somewhere...somehow....a human sees your data and processes it.
Bear with me....I'm still wondering how the 3 million customers who dealt with that careless company in Framingham Mass.(loss of data into crooks hands) T.J. Max et al...feel, right about now, with swiping credit/debit cards after they were violated and it took the media to force the company to reveal how it happened and how many were affected?
Not to mention that "fine neighborhood supermarket" Stop & Shop who allowed the nite crew to install their own swipe units in numerous supermarkets and rip-off countless numbers of their customers. Have you seen any warnings in these stores , or, have you received any notice of warnings in the mail from this German Company? Even the store managers knew nothing about these fraudulent actions 2 months after it was exposed !!! When the perpetrators lawyers told them they could spend up to 5 years incarcerated for their actions, their comments were "so what.....we've already been paid handsomely !!!" Lets get back to basics...start all over...and do it right this time !!! Geez....