Community Chat

[gidgetgh]

My husband and I are thinking about establishing a credit freeze at all three credit bureaus. It used to be that a freeze could only be done if you were a victim of identity theft. The laws have changed and you can now request that a freeze be put on just for general purposes. This should offer substantial protection against possible identity theft.

You can remove it at any time or ask that it temporarily be "thawed" if you are in the process of applying for credit somewhere or if one of your creditors needs to do a request of your credit history.

I checked Clark Howard's site this morning and it seems pretty easy to do. It can be done online or by certified mail. I'm all for online. Friends of ours have done this and we were talking about it with them one night at dinner. They were not victims of identity theft, but put it on as a safeguard. I put it on my list of things to do, or at least think about. It's now at the top of the list (so is cleaning the refrigerator).

So, has anyone put a freeze on, for non-identity theft purposes, just as a preventive thing?