As usual, fellow PA member, Great advice. We have had ours frozen for over 20 years. Mostly pay cash or with existing credit card. Yeah you have to unfreeze if you want to buy major purchases (house, car, boat, etc) on credit but how often does that happen. Freeze your credit with all three credit bureau. You can open it up on an exclusive basis if need be

I’m sure it’s a great idea. Makes me think of people actually freezing their credit cards. You put your cards in a ziplock bag of water and freeze them that way you can’t make impulsive purchases with them.

True. Horse has already left the corral

It's a great idea. Also you can specify to unlock it for a specific time period.

We have ours frozen. It gives us piece of mind that no one can open up credit in our name. You do need to unfreeze when applying for a credit card, loan, or getting a new cell phone — so need to plan ahead. Well worth it.

Can I assume that, if you pay cash for the cell phone, you don't need a credit check?

Have been doing this for years. It’s so easy for hackers to create a credit line with your info. I also use LifeLock for beth my wife and I to protect our identity. With LifeLock, they present 2 more freeze options to protect your identity which I also did. Have you looked on the dark web to see what’s out there in your name? You should, we go out there every so often to delete that info

You still need the credit check for the cellular service. A cellphone is worthless unless you also have cellphone service.

The credit freeze on the three credit bureaus is a good idea. It helps protect you from identity fraud in the future. If identity fraud has already occurred in the past, it will help protect against future identity fraud.

You need to make sure that you record the PIN numbers. Not all of the credit bureaus use PIN numbers now, but you still need to record your Username and Password. The best way to record your Usernames, Passwords, PINs, and other important information is by using a password manager that’s secure and in the cloud. If you record that information on scraps of random paper, or even in a notebook, that information is worthless if the notebook is a thousand miles away from you, or lost. It’s very risky to use the same username and password for everything, because if there’s any release of data, then all your accounts are vulnerable.

The freezing and thawing used to cost about $5 for each of the three credit bureaus, but now it is free. It is annoying when you have to unlock the credit when you switch cellular carriers, cable TV providers, or buy a major ticket item. It’s especially annoying when those organizations don’t know which of the three credit bureaus that they use, so you have to unfreeze and freeze all three. But the credit freeze is an important protection against being a victim of identity fraud.

You can learn more about the credit freeze by searching for Clark Howard Credit Freeze. Clark Howard does a syndicated radio talk show for about 30 years, and he strongly promotes doing the credit freeze on his radio talk show.

The vast majority of people don’t lock their credit, and are vulnerable to identity theft. It’s also shocking how many people use the same usernames and passwords for everything! The only smart way around that problem is to use a secure cloud based password manager system, with two factor log in.

Me and Yes.

"It is annoying when you have to unlock the credit when you switch cellular carriers, cable TV providers, or buy a major ticket item."

My credit has been frozen for many years and I have not had to do any of that, except for a change of cell service.

Frozen but sometimes it’s a process to unfreeze.

Yes. After the Equifax 2017 breach 147 million accounts were hacked.
equifax breach 2017 - Google Search
Chinese Hackers Charged in Equifax Breach — FBI

Great idea. Have you ever read the experiences of someone who has had their identity stolen? Unfreeze is no big deal. Many times you have a soft credit check not a hard check so so need to unfreeze.

Credit Freeze
 

Wait until someone uses your name and social to open a new telephone account with four phone lines and three cell phones in your name. That's what happened to me several years ago. Never again. Thankfully, the credit card company called me and we stopped it. When I called the mobile phone company responsible and inquired why they didn't ask for ID from the new subscriber, they said the transaction was done by phone. Ever since, I have locked my credit report and never had another problem. With Equifax, all you do is go online and check unlock report. Very easy.

So when I unlock my credit with either of the three credit company's
it doesn't effect my credit rating.