From a certified financial advisor on San Francisco’s Golden Gate Mother’s Group Website:
- Check to see if you are one of the people who was impacted by the Equifax credit breach at: http://templatelab.com/equifax-breach-potential-impact
- Place a fraud alert on your credit accounts. A fraud alert requires lenders to take extra steps to verify your identity when someone applies for credit in your name. They only last 90 days, but can be extended.
- Monitor your credit on an ongoing basis: https://annualcreditreport.com. You can get one free credit report from each of the major credit reporting agencies each year.
- The most conservative option is to freeze your credit. This bars new creditors from accessing your credit report, which means that identity thieves will have a hard time opening credit cards or loans in your name.
I requested a copy of my credit report from each of the major credit bureaus and opted to freeze our credit, as we don’t open new accounts very often. We can unfreeze when needed and was advised the process takes 15 minutes and typically there’s a $20 fee. Here are the phone numbers for the credit bureaus. I found it was best to call during the week and took about 20 minutes.
Equifax: 1-800-349-9960 or 1-800-846-5279
Experian: 1-888-397-3742
TransUnion: 1-888-909-8872
Innovis: 1-800-540-2505
For more information:
https://www.lifelock.com/education/equifax-data-breach-2017/?promocode=LLART10
