Requesting A Credit Freeze

In order to freeze your credit reports, you will need to send a letter to each of the three credit agencies. Each of them charges a fee to put a freeze on your credit, and the amount of the fee could be different from state to state. However, the fee is pretty low and worth every penny. Lucky for you, the Identity Theft Resource Center has a free PDF download of a sample letter you can send to the 3 agencies

With any letters you send, you must send proof of your ID. After all, you don’t want a “fake” you requesting a freeze on your credit, do you? Send along these docs:

• A copy of your driver’s license
• A copy of your Social Security Card
• A copy of a bill matching your name and address

Be sure to always send your letters via Certified Mail Return Receipt. Here are the addresses for each of the credit agencies:

TransUnion
P.O. Box 6790
Fullerton, CA 92834
State info and fee schedule for Transunion

Equifax Security Freeze
P.O. Box 105788
Atlanta, Georgia 30348
State info and fee schedule for Equifax

Experian Security Freeze
P.O. Box 9554
Allen, TX 75013
State info and fee schedule for Experian

While I don’t recommend freezing your credit for no reason other than fear, it’s good to know that you can freeze it if you feel your identity has been compromised. It can instantly stop any thieves from using and/or getting new credit in your name, and requires any lenders to really secure who they are lending to.

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When I called the (of course) automated phone tree and entered my credit card number, the robot voice on the other end told me my account was closed. Thinking there must have been a mistake and knowing that I never canceled the card, I waited patiently for 11 minutes until a human came on the line. I asked him about this account and he confirmed that the company closed it a while back due to inactivity. I asked him when they were planning on letting me know this, and he didn’t know if they were ever going to. I was pretty pissed – not because I lost some of my open credit but because I was a customer of theirs for 16 years and they couldn’t even bother contacting me to see if I wanted to keep the card open by using it. No phone call, no email, no letter…nothing. They just decided one day to close the account and ding my credit score a little bit. Thanks FIA/IBS!

The moral of the story? You don’t matter – not that you ever did, really. But I did figure that a 16 year relationship with a company mattered enough to warrant a phone call, but I guess I figured wrong. So if you have any open lines of credit that you haven’t used in a while, I would call and ask about them. You don’t want to go to use it and have it be closed on you, do you? I will be sticking with my Chase card (not that they care either, but I have never had any issues with them) for now, and as for FIA/IBS/Whatever you are called, thank you for breaking up with me. I have no interest in being with a company that couldn’t care any less about a 16 year customer.

Photo from Shutterstock

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1. Bought it through a Dell store link over at MyPoints, meaning I got 2 points for each dollar.
2. Used my Chase Amtrak card for the small balance, so I received more rail miles

I still have a lot of points left, and I plan on using some of them to get another $200 certificate to Dell to put towards a new television, which I will have delivered directly to my new home in Colorado (so I don’t have to move it with my other belongings). Makes sense, right?

Sometimes the reward points do come in handy, but I still plan on canceling the card before my renewal date in a few months, as I no longer want to pay annual fees to use a credit card. Luckily, I am getting back way more in rewards than I ever spent in annual fees, but that won’t be the case anymore as I don’t really use that card anymore. For people who really have a ton of expenses, reward cards like this one might be worth the fee, but for me, it isn’t anymore. Besides, all my recurring bills go on my Amtrak card so I can get free train travel, which is much more important to me than random electronics. But in this case, I needed a new DVD player and a new TV, so it made sense. See, reward credit cards are not all bad as long as you use them wisely!

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Now, you guys know my stance on paying annual fees, because I just wrote about it the other day. But for some people, the rewards (and how much you spend on the cards) are worth the cost of admission. And as long as you use credit wisely by paying off the balances every month, which Amex makes you do because they are a charge card and not a credit card, the rewards might be worth it to you. Shop wisely.

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I stopped paying the annual fee on my Citibank American Airlines reward card already, because I gave up flying over 2 years ago. And while I realize that the popular opinion about credit cards is that you shouldn’t close any accounts, I don’t necessarily subscribe wholeheartedly to that concept. For me, a few tiny dings on my credit report is worth the price of ditching 2 credit cards I no longer use. Granted, I have other cards and I don’t carry any debt, so canceling the cards is not going to increase my credit to debt ratio or anything like that. It will amount to a ding on my credit score and nothing more. But the positives far outweigh this little negative, in that…

- I will no longer have annual fees due to credit cards
- I will have less cards to maintain and keep track of
- My credit report will show less open credit, which could actually help the next time I need to borrow money

So if you feel the need or desire to cancel a credit card, it’s not necessarily as terrible as some “experts” will tell you. (In fact, some people think they have come up with a good use for paid-off cards) Your credit score will bounce back pretty quickly from any hit it takes while you are cleaning up your financial life by getting rid of accounts you no longer need or want. I have decided that from this point forward, I don’t think I am willing to pay annual fees on credit cards anymore, as I already have the 1 card I use for every single purchase every month. The rewards or benefits will have to be extremely beneficial to me or my business in order for me to pay for the privilege of using a credit card with a fee!

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• Using credit responsibly shows other lenders you are able to manage debt, which means you have access to the lowest interest rates on things like auto loans and mortgages.
• Using credit responsibly can make or break your credit score. While most assume this is only for used for getting a good loan, it can be used for other life events like renting an apartment. With a bad credit score, an apartment manager might not rent to you.
• By paying most of my monthly bills on a credit card, I can keep my cash in the bank just a little bit longer and let the credit card company part with their money first.
• I had airline miles rewards cards for years and got many free flights from them. Since I no longer fly, I now have an Amtrak Rewards card and rack up miles for free trips or upgrades.
• By using 0% balance transfer offers correctly, you can effectively cut your interest rate on any debt while simultaneously giving yourself a jump on paying off said debt.

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If you are able to manage credit, it can be a tremendous tool you can use for your benefit. It took me years to get there, but now I am in control of credit and it is no longer in control of me. So when you are ready and able, do not be scared of credit – just learn to use it to your advantage.

Have you recently started using credit again after being in debt or taking a hiatus? Have any tips or advice to share with the readers? Please let us all know!

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First off, you should have a copy of your credit report from each of the three big credit bureaus: Equifax, Experian, and Transunion. Keep in mind that you are entitled to one free credit report from each per year, and you can get that from www.annualcreditreport.com. This is the only legitimate place sponsored by the credit bureaus themselves where you can get a free credit report online, so do not be fooled by other services who offer you free credit reports in exchange for signing up for credit monitoring and the like. I get my 3 reports a year from that site – one every 4 months so I can see my report throughout the year. If you already got your free ones, you can pay for another copy from the agencies themselves.

photo credit: TheTruthAboutMortgage.com

Search carefully through all three reports for the mistake(s) that you think might exist. Be sure to check for open and closed lines of credit, credit cards you don’t have, bank loans that might not be yours, addresses that you never lived at – anything out of the norm that you don’t recognize could be a sign of an error.

When you find any mistake, file a dispute claim with each credit bureau online at their website. Explain to them what you think the issue is and provide any backup information that will help them verify your claims. The credit bureaus will then contact the bank/lender/credit card company and see what information they can get back from them either agree with your claim or deny it.

If the company denies your claims, you will have to take the issue up with them directly. So if the problem lies with Visa, you will have to deal with them to try to get some resolution. If the company agrees with your claims, then the credit bureaus will remove the error from your credit report.

It is always good to monitor your credit report all year, and that is why I pull one of my free ones every 4 months so I can keep track. If you have not already started doing that, go ahead and get a copy of one of them from www.annualcreditreport.com. and start monitoring your reports!

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