Thursday, January 19, 2006

How to Remove a Security Freeze on Experian

With identity theft being such a problem, all three of the credit reporting agencies allow consumers to put a freeze on their credit. A freeze makes it impossible for a criminal to open a credit account using your identity: The credit issuer pulls up your credit report, and if there's a freeze on it, no credit will be issued. This is a great way to prevent ID theft.

While even you can't open a credit account that's under a freeze, you can remove a security freeze from Experian, TransUnion and Equifax when you need to.

Instructions

Remove the Freeze

    1

    Contact Experian; be able to provide verification of your identity.

    2

    Make a statement. You need to state to Experian that you wish to either permanently or temporarily remove the freeze. If it will be a temporary freeze, you must tell Experian who is going to receive your credit report or during what time period the report is to be made available.

    3

    Provide your PIN number (you received a PIN number when you initiated the freeze). You need to have this number to remove the freeze.

    4

    Temporarily remove an Experian security freeze. If you want a credit issuer to gain access to your credit information so that you can open an account, you can remove the freeze for 7, 15 or 30 days (you can also request a different time period). During this period, any third parties who wish to can view your credit report.

    5

    Permanently remove the freeze. If you apply for credit often, you may want to permanently remove the credit freeze. By removing the freeze, third parties will be able to view your credit information just as they did before you had a freeze in place.

    6

    Request a PIN number reminder. You must have your PIN number to request the security freeze to be lifted. If you forgot your number, you can request a reminder from Experian. You need the PIN to both temporarily and permanently remove the freeze.

    7

    Contact Equifax and TransUnion, too. You must contact each credit reporting agency separately to initiate or remove a freeze.

0 comments:

Post a Comment