How to protect your identity from being stolen this holiday season (live)

2015-12-02

 

Live Story:

Later Cut:

Original article can be found here. Another copy can be found on TVEyes.com.

NEW HAVEN, Conn. (WTNH)– ‘Tis the season to whip out your credit card for holiday shopping, and that means it is also the season for thieves to steal your identity. Experts say there is one simple thing you can do to make it harder for the bad guys to turn you into their own personal Santa.

Here’s the idea – identity thieves don’t want to be you. They want to use your name, birthday and social security number to open credit cards in your name, spend money, and stick you with the bill. For them to do that, the credit card company has to check your credit score, and that’s where the credit freeze comes in.

That’s also where Professor Frank Breitinger comes in, he’s a cyber security expert at University of New Haven. Even so, he got a letter yesterday that his identity was stolen. If it can happen to him, it can happen to you. But, if you get something called a “Credit Freeze,” it can stop the thief from getting a credit card in your name.

“They basically say, “This account is on a freeze, this file is on a freeze, and the request will be denied,’” explained Prof. Breitinger. “So the thief is not able to open an account.”

The “they” are the three big credit rating agencies, and to get a freeze, you have to contact each one individually:

https://www.experian.com/freeze/center.html

https://www.freeze.equifax.com

http://www.transunion.com/personal-credit/credit-disputes/credit-freezes.page

“To get the credit freeze is fairly easy,” Breitinger said. “So it starts to get more and more common that people are worried about, so the companies have made it easy. You can do it by phone, you can do it online, you can do it traditionally by mail.”

But it does cost money: It varies by state, but in Connecticut, it’s about $10 for each of the three agencies to freeze your credit. It will not affect your existing cards.

“If you freeze your accounts, but you have already a credit card, you can still use this credit card,” Breitinger said. “The company will still get the information from these reporting companies.”

Here is the big drawback to freezing your credit: People check your credit score every time you get a new credit card, get a car loan, a mortgage, sign a lease, or even when you sign up for a new phone contract. Credit checks happen a lot. You have to pay every time you want to “thaw” or “un-freeze” your credit, and then pay again to have it re-frozen. Plan accordingly


If you need additional information (pros and cons) about the topic, please see the following links: