Protect Your Credit

Protect Your Credit  |  Protect Your Login Info  |  Invest for Retirement  |  Investment Resources

Last updated: October 6, 2017

Given the many breaches of privacy information, it is imperative that you protect your credit and personal identification!  This is a step-by-step quickguide to doing so.  Click on the clark.com links to find out more!

  1. FIRST, make sure you have UNIQUE AND SECURE passwords for all of your online financial accounts!
    • Never (never, never, never, never, never, ever…) use the same password on multiple online accounts. N-E-V-E-R.
    • Get a Password Manager to help you manage this.
    • A secure password is one you could never remember!
    • Turn on Two-Factor Authentication everywhere possible.  TwoFactorAuth.org is a website that keeps a running list of websites (and financial institutions) that use two-factor authentication.
  2. SECOND, setup a https://creditkarma.com account.
    • This allows you to monitor your credit and score.
    • You must do this before freezing your credit bureau accounts.
  3. THIRD, freeze your credit bureau accounts (see details at bottom for each bureau).
    • You’ll want to also have your spouse & kids accounts frozen, too.
    • Each person will have a separate account.
    • NOTE: Freezing accounts doesn’t stop you from having or using credit or credit cards.  It stops the ability of someone creating a new account in your name or accessing your credit information without your permission.  You can temporarily unfreeze the account if you need to get a new loan, open a credit or bank account, etc.  This is all in the details at clark.com below.
  4. Under 30 years old??  If you’re a millennial, you’ll want to read this, as well: http://clark.com/personal-finance-credit/equifax-data-breach-why-millennials-should-be-worried-and-how-they-can-protect-themselves/

Sure, it will be an extra pain when applying for mortgages, loans, credit cards, bank accounts, etc. but you can unfreeze online or by phone pretty easily and protects against anyone who doesn’t have your pin # from opening any accounts in your name.

Here are some pretty good resources stepping you through exactly what to do ( clark.com is Clark Howard’s site ):

CREDIT BUREAUS

Here are the links & contact info where you can submit for a credit freeze (but only AFTER setting up your creditkarma.com account) with each of the four Credit Bureaus.

Equifax: 1-800-685-1111 / 1-800-349-9960

Experian: 1-888-397-3742

TransUnion: 1-888-909-8872

Innovis: 1-800-540-250

Social Engineering Attacks: Be warned, in the coming days/weeks, cyber attackers will take advantage of this incident and launch millions of phishing emails, phone calls or text messages trying to fool people.  DO NOT click on any links in any emails even those that look like they’re coming from legit sources.

Edits:

October 6, 2017: Added links to protecting your login; clarified what “freezing credit” means.