In an effort to help prevent identity theft, I often advise my clients (and anyone who’ll listen actually) that it’s a good idea to freeze their credit profiles with the three main credit reporting companies (Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion).1
Typically, the freezing process only takes about 30 minutes and having freezing your credit could avoid some monumental headaches down the road. I don’t know about you, but I imagine it would take many hours on the phone to convince the credit reporting companies that you didn’t open a credit card account in Afghanistan and run up a $20,000 tab, someone must’ve have stolen your identity. As the doctors say, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
But is it possible to go even further when it comes to locking down your financial records? Why yes it is! In addition to the “Big 3” I mentioned earlier, here is a list of other places to consider freezing:
Innovis
Innovis is essentially a 4th credit agency. Landlords and other companies use Innovis to check credit and verify identity.
Freeze link – https://www.innovis.com/securityFreeze/index
ChexSystems
ChexSystems tracks your history with checking and savings accounts (i.e. not credit accounts). Freezing with them should help prevent a thief from opening a bank account in your name.
Freeze link – https://www.chexsystems.com/security-freeze/place-freeze
LexisNexis
LexisNexis a giant data broker/warehouse. Lots of companies use LexisNexis to gather info and often are required to provide info as part of the business arrangement.
Freeze link – https://consumer.risk.lexisnexis.com/freeze
National Consumer Telecom & Utilities Exchange (NCTUE)
NCTUE tracks accounts with phone and other utility companies. A freeze should help prevent unauthorized accounts with these providers.
Freeze link – https://www.nctue.com/consumers
Clarity Services, DataX, and FactorTrust
These companies track subprime finance with a focus on things like payday loans, short-term lending, or other high-risk loan categories.
These three services are owned by Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion respectively. In an ideal world, a freeze with one of the parent companies would propagate down to Clarity/DataX/FactorTrust. Unfortunately, we do not live in an ideal world.
Clarity freeze link – https://consumers.clarityservices.com/securityFreeze
DataX freeze link – https://consumers.dataxltd.com/consumerCreditFreeze
FactorTrust freeze link – https://www.transunion.com/client-support/factortrust-consumer-inquiry-statefreeze
IRS
You can’t exactly freeze your IRS account, but you can request an identity protection PIN each year before filing your taxes. The best way to get an IP PIN is to set up an IRS online account
More info – https://www.irs.gov/identity-theft-fraud-scams/get-an-identity-protection-pin
Opt out of credit offers
You can also opt out of those pre-approved credit card offers you may get in the mail. Visit https://www.optoutprescreen.com/ for more info.
Tell everyone you know
After freezing your own credit, be sure to tell your friends and family members to consider doing the same. And if you have minor children, it’s a good idea to consider freezing their profiles as well. I would argue that minor children are at high risk of identity theft as nobody is typically checking their credit profile until their reach age 18. Any issues could go undetected for a good long while.
1 Here are links to freeze the big 3:
Equifax – https://www.equifax.com/personal/credit-report-services/credit-freeze/
Experian – https://www.experian.com/freeze/center.html
TransUnion – https://www.transunion.com/credit-freeze
