In the bold type, the “lock” costs $4.99, but in the fine print it is a monthly charge. What they do offer is a credit “lock” for which they charge a fee. It dawned on me that it is also nearly impossible to find any reference to a credit freeze on the Experian site (unless you google directly to the freeze page). While I was waiting, hacked around the Experian website looking for some explanation of the charges – I could not find any. I got on the phone with Experian to ask about the charges and waited almost an hour listening to their pitches for additional services. Going back through our bills, we realized that Experian had not only charged us for the freeze but continued to charge us $21.95 per month. In our case, about six months after we froze our credit, we realized that there were current charges from Experian on our credit card bill. Here’s the trick: Since so many states have limited or prohibited the charging of fees for a freeze, the big three have come up with a whole lot of other ways to charge consumers. Legislation to prohibit freeze fees is moving through the legislature – currently, we limit the maximum fee to $5. ![]() To freeze our credit, we had to visit the websites of each of the big three and, ironically, to pay a fee. Get consumer information on how to freeze your credit here. ![]() ![]() I am embarrassed to confess that I personally fell victim to one of their common tricks.Īfter Equifax lost personal data on millions of consumers last fall, my wife and I decided to freeze our credit so that no one could take out loans using our identities. We are trying to fight back with legislation. The big three credit agencies – Equifax, Experian, TransUnion - have figured out that they can make money on the problems that they create for us.
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