If You’re On That Equifax List, The Bad Guys Can’t Do Much If You Freeze Your Credit
It’s the hottest part of summer in Florida… what better time to talk about freezing (your credit)?
Listen I’m just a dumb DJ. I don’t know much about 401K’s. I’ll never give you a stock tip. But one thing that is easy to wrap my head around is a credit freeze. A credit freeze makes it so that you, or anyone pretending to be you, can’t apply for credit. So if you were on that Equifax list, don’t just collect your $125 and call it a day. You’re not done. It’ll cost a lot more than $125 if someone steals your identity and buys stuff in your name. You’ll have a new part-time job to fix the mess. And the job doesn’t pay.
It’s super easy. You can do this during your lunch hour and still probably have time to hit the drive thru. You have to contact all 3 credit bureaus and tell them you want to freeze your credit. If the time comes when you need to apply for a loan for something like a home or car, you’ll need to temporarily unfreeze it. It’s a little bit of a hassle and it costs $5. But that’s a lot less time and money lost compared to what you’ll go through if someone pretends to be your and has your information lost in this Equifax breach.
I recorded this podcast this morning to share all I know about credit freezes. Hope this helps! For more, and probably a better explanation, go to the guy who taught me this stuff! Here’s Clark Howard’s Guide to the Credit Freeze.
