To Freeze or Not to Freeze; that is the credit problem

   On September 7th, one of three major credit reporting agencies, Equifax reported a data breach that exposed millions of consumer's personal information, such as names, social security numbers, birth dates, and in some cases, drivers license numbers. And lets not forget the thousands of credit card numbers and documentation with personal information as well.

The breach happened from May through July.

It was announced in September.

It was the second breach, supposedly unrelated to the first in March.

That makes me feel much better.

   Thousand of people were notified that their data may have been compromised. The Federal Trade Commission issued a post on What to Do if you are worried that your personal information has been accessed.  In case you don't want to read the article, it states that you should check your credit reports, consider freezing your credit files, monitor your existing bank accounts and credit cards, and file your taxes early.

   Is that all? Sounds easy enough.

   Well, it is a bit time consuming. After all, you have to contact each credit bureau separately. Right after the breach, getting on the websites for the three major credit reporting bureaus (Equifax, TransUnion, Experian) was a bit of a nightmare. The automated phone options were a little easier to navigate, but forget it if you wanted an operator. (I understand that this has gotten better in the weeks since the announcement.)  Heaven forbid that you have a life - you know - a job, kids that need to get to lessons on time, events to attend, and laundry to do (nudity in public is still frowned upon). 

   Still, every good consumer wants to take the time to protect personal information in any way possible. Freezing credit files sounds like a pretty good way to do this. After all, credit reports are important...

• You can't buy a house without them
• You have trouble buying a car without them
• Depending on your occupation, you might not get a job without them

Yep, you read that last point correctly. 

You may need your credit report available if you are searching for a job.

   I am sure I knew this, but I hadn't thought about it until this recent credit breach. It wasn't really mentioned in any of the articles I read. But when one of my family members opted to freeze their credit files in order to protect their personal data it proved to be an issue. The difficulty wasn't in freezing the file, the problem was one of the agencies froze the wrong file. 

OOPS.

   Their son discovered the error when he applied for a job that required a credit check. He and his father share the same name. It is not the first time he has had problems with the credit reporting system. At one time, he had utility bill records dating back to 1964. He was born in the 1970's.

Note to self - All offspring need unique names.

   Having had difficulties in the past, he figured out what had happened pretty quickly and was able to obtain the pin number from his father to unlock the file so that his potential employer could access the file. A bit of a hassle and one he should not have had to go through. They don't share a social security number, but it turns out the credit bureau had a glitch in the system and it locked the wrong one. Then later locked the correct one. Well, how secure is that?

   So what kind of jobs require a security check? More than I expected. Mortgage Loan Originator and accounting jobs (Okay, no brainer there), law enforcement, medical jobs, military, government jobs, jobs in powerhouses, cashiers, and parking booth operators and any position that requires a security clearance or handling sums of money to name a few. Now that narrows things down.

   I can understand why companies would want to check your credit, especially those that would have employees handling sensitive information or high dollar amounts, they are trying to limit their exposure to fraud and theft. Curious, I wondered what it was that they did see. After reading several confusing articles, I found one I liked on CreditCarma  (Why do some employers check your credit history?) written by Louis DeNicola.

   While your credit score is not given to employers (nor is age, year of birth, or account numbers), they can see if you have derogatory marks on your report that can indicate how responsible you are financially and if you might be a risk to their companies. Okay, I get it.

Photo Credit: Marco Verch via photopin (License)

 So now all I have to remember, in addition to regularly checking my credit score, and paying my taxes early (I already keep a close eye on all my account balances) is to unfreeze my credit before applying for a loan or a job. Got it.

   I can't even remember what I was going to make for dinner tonight.

   And how exactly do I pay my taxes early? Last time I checked, employers aren't required to send forms out until the end of January and financial institutions have an even later date to do so.

I had better figure out what we are having for dinner first.