D.C. residents: freeze your credit
Starting July 1, residents of Washington, D.C., will be able to “freeze” their credit reports for $10/credit bureau. A credit freeze prevents the credit bureau from releasing any information from the credit report without the consumer’s authorization. Sonya-Smith Valentine recommends that consumers who have no need for credit freeze their reports until a potential creditor or employer needs to access it for a legitimate reason.
Especially given the inaccuracies that plague credit reports, this sounds like good advice to me.
[via Consumer Law Blog]
3 Comments on “D.C. residents: freeze your credit”
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I just wish they were “frozen” in general. My credit rating is pretty high and it’s drawing unwonted attention.
This is fantastic news! I wish I lived in DC. Of course, there’s no information about whether you need to be a victim first or if the fee is yearly (both of which are bogus provisions that weak states add under pressure from credit companies I figure).
Anyway, if you live in DC, do this immediately and tell everyone you know to do it too.
Is there a way to do a credit freeze in other states even if it means paying more money or will this only exist in the DC area? It’s a great idea but should be something they should have been doing for free anyway. The article implied you don’t have to be a victim first because they said victims will be able to do a freeze for free.