Free tool to help protect your credit
Identity theft can happen to anyone, but starting Friday, you have a new free tool to protect against scammers who steal financial information.
The three nationwide credit reporting agencies will be required by a new law to allow consumers to “freeze” and “thaw” their credit report for free.
In the state of Idaho, it used to cost $18 to freeze your credit and another $18 to thaw it.
A security freeze prevents the credit reporting agencies from releasing your credit report while it’s in effect. The new law also allows any parent to freeze their child’s credit.
“No one can open up an account, a credit card, buy a car, a variety of things with your credit if it’s frozen,” said Jeremy Johnson, a marketplace manager with the Eastern Idaho BBB.
The three credit bureaus have online portals. When a credit reporting agency receives an online or phone request to freeze someone’s credit, they have to freeze it within one day. Requests to unfreeze someone’s credit report must be completed within one hour.
