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by rpedela 2830 days ago
Your credit score can be ruined by this and then when you need credit, such as a home or car loan, you are screwed. If you are lucky to be independently wealthy where you can pay for everything with cash, then no problem. But very few of us are in that situation.
1 comments
throwaway76543 2830 days ago
Just file disputes, it'll get removed. Disputes are free and with a police report in hand they will go through.

I'm suggesting you should not pay upfront to help curate this data, to pay to micromanage access to a credit report to protect other lenders.

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rpedela 2830 days ago
Why? You really want to spend all your time fighting someone who gets a hold of your information? It is not a one or two times thing. Go talk to people who had their identities stolen. It is not fun and it can take years to fix everything. I know one person who is still having trouble after 15 years.
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throwaway76543 2830 days ago
The vast majority of people will spend less time as this is a rare occurrence.

Freezing a credit report is not going to prevent someone from getting ahold of your information. It will prevent someone who already has your information from running your credit and opening new lines of credit -- which doesn't matter much. It is completely ineffective for the vast majority (90%+) of identity theft.

It will not protect you from someone stealing your cards or checks.

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rpedela 2830 days ago
identity theft != credit card theft

Yes, credit card theft is not a big deal and you don't really need any protection because the CC companies are pretty pro-active about it. That is not what we are talking about. Yes, real identity theft is rare but it does happen. With a few simple steps, you can protect yourself better in the rare case that it does. Can you completely protect yourself? No, but some protection is better than none.

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throwaway76543 2830 days ago
On the contrary, credit card theft is one of the most common forms of identity theft.

As I said above, it is far, far less time and expense to follow up to actual fraud with a police report than it is to freeze-unfreeze your credit every time you want to pass a credit check.

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rpedela 2830 days ago
> As I said above, it is far, far less time and expense to follow up to actual fraud with a police report than it is to freeze-unfreeze your credit every time you want to pass a credit check.

Unless you need monthly credit checks (very odd), I find that statement extremely hard to believe.

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