As usual, we associate the word "frozen" with ice, snow, winter or frozen vegetables. However, credit report freeze will be the last thing you will think of as this procedure occurs rather rarely and people resort to it in case of emergency.
It's a wide-spread practice to freeze one's credit report and it makes your credit card account inactive and no one unauthorized will be able to get access to your credit account.
So, in what cases consumers usually resort to the credit report freeze?
Certain circumstances may force you to freeze your credit card and then it makes no difference whether you have a
bad credit card or a good one. However, this method is not the only one and some credit users find other ways. Thus, you are free to find your own alternative.
So, let's see what credit report freeze implies. As a rule, it is a lock-down of your credit account that does not allow anyone, including you, to open credit of any form. As soon as your credit card is frozen, your report will be unavailable to lenders, credit card issuers and even employers.
It's important to mention that the credit card freeze doesn't allow even legal cardholders to reach their credit files unless they enter a special PIN code to cancel the freeze of your credit report.
So, when is the credit report freeze necessary and how can a consumer make use of it? This option disables your account and can be applied only in two cases.
Firstly, it will be necessary to you if you are used to making excessive purchases and credit card spending. This practice will undoubtedly max out your plastic if you lose control over yourself. If you cannot do that, take the opportunity to use credit card freeze.
The other reason for making your report freeze is identity theft, both actual and suspected. Nowadays, many US states give their residents a chance to freeze their credit accounts. Texas, Nevada, California, Washington and some others offer consumers the option to lock their credit cards down if they present the necessary evidence of being a victim of identity theft.
You may doubt if the report freeze is more helpful than, say, a fraud alert on your credit card. But the matter is that with fraud alert your account remains active and gives credit issuers a chance to approve of anyone applying for credit, if the lender verifies it with the cardholder. In this case a creditor gets in contacts with you to get your permission to issue a card.
And what is worse, creditors are not required to check the alert and any credit card fraudster can make use your credit card. If you don’t plan to run such risks, you'd better use credit card freeze that is definitely more effective.
If someone takes on credit in your name, your credit issuer will contact one of the credit bureaus to make sure if he/she qualifies for it and to give the approval. However, if your account is frozen, the credit company won't have access to it until you cancel the freeze.
So, credit report freeze is an excellent tool not only to prevent you from your excessive credit card spendings but from
identity theft as well making it useful for your credit score and your personal security.
Anne R. Sparks focuses on articles and
credit card news about credit cards. She gives online answers as well to all questions concerning
credit card applications.
