[throwaway76543]

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.

[rpedela]

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.

[throwaway76543]

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.

[rpedela]

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.

[throwaway76543]

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.

[rpedela]

> 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.

[throwaway76543]

Would you care to elaborate? I'm finding your opinion rather odd myself.

The vast majority of people never freeze their credit and never have to expend any energy on the issue of credit security at all.

Most people have their credit run a few times a year, when they sign up for a new service, new credit product, raise a limit, buy a new vehicle, what have you.