Freezing your credit helps your credit information be as secure as possible. After freezing your credit, no one will be able to open up any new lines of credit under your name, and your credit information will be much less accessible to others. These are a few of the other benefits you could find from freezing your credit.
It’s Free and Easy
Freezing your credit can significantly help you make your credit more secure. It allows you to make it much more difficult to open up any new lines of credit, and keeps your information safe. However, the very best part of freezing your credit is that it’s absolutely free to do, and it’s an easy, simple process. To freeze your credit, you need to contact each of the credit reporting agencies that you use individually. After providing them with some identifying information like social security number, name, address, etc., they will be able to freeze your credit for you. They will also give you a PIN that you can use to unlock your credit whenever you need to.
Prevent Fraudulent Activity
One of the biggest benefits of freezing your credit is that it allows you to prevent any fraudulent activity from occurring. While any open lines of credit can still theoretically be accessed by identity thieves, they will be unable to open any new lines of credit. For any open lines of credit you have, regularly monitoring your credit statements can help you catch any suspicious activity. Strange activity on your credit card accounts is a sign of identity theft. However, by freezing your credit, you limit the amount of interaction an identity thief can have with you.
It Doesn’t Affect Your Credit Score
One of the worries you may have about freezing your credit is the effect it could have on your credit score. However, there is no need to worry. Freezing your credit has absolutely no effect on your credit score. Because freezing your credit doesn’t actively affect any open lines of credit you already have, your credit score is not affected. It is important to note, however, that your credit score may change for other reasons. Be sure to stay on top of credit card payments and any amount of debt you’ve accumulated to keep your credit score high.
Freezing your credit can be a good idea for a variety of reasons. If you’ve suffered from identity or credit theft in the past, freezing your credit can prevent it from happening again. If you’ve been considering freezing your credit, these are a few of the benefits you could get from doing so.
Check out this article on what to do if you think someone is trying to defraud you!
