The Credit Report Security Freeze I Did Not Request
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So I tried to access one of my free annual credit reports from Equifax yesterday and I was told they couldn’t give it to me because of a security freeze. Last year, when I checked my report before opening my first credit card, everything was fine. That moment of fear struck me, assuming someone had tried to steal my identity.
From a little research, a security freeze is a lock on my credit report so that new creditors aren’t able to access them, which would therefore prevent any new forms of available credit. But, many say that it is often requested by the person to freeze their credit and can be unfrozen with a certain PIN or password. I didn’t even know that I had a security freeze. How am I supposed to remove it then?
It could probably be anything such as a security freeze, fraud alert, or something other identity theft prevention method. I think I might have to give them a call and hope there is no major problem or there isn’t another Simon Zhen out there.
This is going to be a troublesome ordeal. Anyone experienced a similar situation or knows why this is happening?
Photo credit: blese
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JT Locke--The Frugal Housewife said:
Same thing has happened to my hubby. We found out the very same way. From what we could find online, he would have to make a copy of several pieces of identification so that they could determine that he is actually “him”. Bunch of….well…I’m not gonna say the word I really want to call it. He’s going to call them and see who put the security lock on it because he didn’t do it.
I can say this, if it turns out to have something to do with the scavenger debt collector that has been hounding him, they (the scavenger debt collector) are going to get sued for the maximum plus lawyer’s fees.
Good luck in trying to deal with the credit bureau. If you like, I’ll keep you updated on what’s going on with his situation.
March 25th, 2009 at 9:12 pm -
Simon said:
@JT: Oh really? So this was also a recent event for your husband? I also found that I would have to send in proof of my identity. And I agree, this is a bunch of “word you won’t say”.
Hmmm… I don’t have a debt collector hounding me, so I wonder what puts your husband and I in the same situation. I’d definitely like to know if you and your husband found a solution to this problem and I’ll let you now if I get this cleared out.
March 26th, 2009 at 12:19 am -
Free Credit report said:
It’s most likely a problem with the bank rather than you. Credit crunch has taken its toll on them.
March 26th, 2009 at 8:58 pm -
JT Locke said:
After doing some research, don’t think it’s the “debt collector”. They can’t even say for sure that it’s my hubby’s debt since it goes back 23 years and they can’t do anything to the credit report because of the age of the “supposed” debt.
Did you sign up for anything with Free Credit Report.com or with your bank that would monitor your credit and you could access your reports? We did sign up through our bank and a couple of years ago we used freecreditreport.com. We think this is what started his block.
I do know that we are not sending anything regarding his DL, SS # or a copy of a bill to them. I contacted a friend that worked for a debt collector and they gave me a link to use to try to unfreeze it. I haven’t tried it yet and if it works I’ll send it to you.
March 31st, 2009 at 9:10 pm -
Jason Leonard said:
Well, after attempting to check my credit on-line I found my self frozen out of my own info, not to mention a reference to a large out standing debt that I’ve never heard of. this all happened about 30 min ago. So I was wondering how things worked out for you all. Any update that might give me a glimmer of hope?
December 17th, 2009 at 1:08 pm -
Simon Zhen said:
@Jason: I was able to check my credit report last month without any prompt from a credit bureau. Before, they would ask me send them them identification documents to confirm that it was in face me contacting them regarding my credit reports. I, as shame to myself, didn’t do anything about it. I’m guessing that the freeze was removed because they eventually ruled out fraud. Try calling the credit bureaus to have the freeze lifted earlier. It would be a disaster if there were actually discrepancies and you didn’t choose to handle them early on.
December 17th, 2009 at 1:17 pm
