If a company tells you that your personal data was exposed in a breach I would normally freeze your credit. This is especially true when the stolen data contains a Social Security number or other details that could help someone open an account in your name.<\/p>\n
The annoying part of a data breach is that you never know what will happen next. Your information can sit idle for months before someone tries to use it. Therefore waiting for a charge or a strange account to appear is not a good strategy.<\/p>\n
A freeze takes care of that problem early. If someone has your information and attempts to open a credit card the lender will hit the freeze and stop the transaction.<\/p>\n
Think of a freeze as putting your credit report behind a gate. You control the key.<\/p>\n
You will usually need to contact each credit bureau separately to place a freeze. Keep the login details or PINs that the bureau gives you in a place. You will need those details when you want to lift the freeze for a credit application.<\/p>\n
Not every breach carries the risk. If a company lost your email address the situation is different from a breach involving sensitive identity information.<\/p>\n
If your Social Security number was exposed I would freeze your credit. The same applies if the breach involved personal information to make identity theft a realistic concern.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Your Social Security number was exposed. That is the one and I would take the warning seriously.<\/p>\n
\u2022 You do not expect to apply for credit soon which makes the freeze easier to live with.<\/p>\n
\u2022 The breach involved identity details and the company is not giving you much confidence about what was taken.<\/p>\n
A credit freeze mainly protects against accounts being opened using your identity. It does not magically protect a credit card you already have.<\/p>\n
So keep an eye on existing accounts too. If you see a charge that you do not recognize, deal with it directly through the institution.<\/p>\n
Honestly yes. If the breach exposed information that could be used for identity theft I would rather spend twenty minutes setting up a freeze than spend weeks fixing an account later.<\/p>\n
You can lift the freeze when you actually need to apply for credit. It may feel like one password and one more annoying task in your life but, after a while you stop noticing it.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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