Personal Financial Focus - Thawing a Security Freeze - An Update

In 2014, I wrote an article on how to freeze your credit union reports as a way to protect not only your credit, but your privacy. Placing a security freeze at the three credit reporting companies—Equifax, TransUnion and Experian—prevents any person or organization, including lenders, from accessing your credit information. This freeze prevents any new loans, credit and/or services from being approved in your name. The downside of freezing your credit report information is that you cannot refinance your mortgage, open a home equity line-of-credit, sign up for a new credit card, etc., unless you un-freeze your frozen reports.

As a follow up to my initial article, I wanted to find out how difficult it is to un-freeze an existing security freeze. The answer turns out the be—not difficult at all.

Although there is a fee to freeze your information at all three credit bureaus, there is no fee to un-freeze the reports. When the initial security freeze is established, a PIN is assigned to the accounts to be used for future access. Reversing the security freeze at Experian and Equifax can be done online using this PIN and answering a number of security questions. TransUnion required a phone call to lift the freeze, although the process was quick and simple. You can choose the length of time that you wish the freeze to be lifted—one day, one week, one month or indefinitely.

If you decide to put a security freeze on your accounts, or to lift the security freeze, contact information for the three credit bureaus is as follows:

Equifax Security
www.equifax.com
1-800-680-7289

Freeze Experian Security
www.experian.com

Freeze TransUnion
www.transunion.com

Important Disclosures

• Registration does not imply a certain level of skill or training.
• Past performance or behavior of any index or other financial or governmental indicator is not necessarily indicative of future returns. This information is provided for general information only, and is not intended as personalized investment advice. This presentation is not intended to be any form of financial planning, investment, tax or legal advice. There is no substitute for individualized investment advice, and no conclusions should be drawn from this information. All readers should contact their professional investment, legal and tax advisors before entering into any investment or investment agreement.
• Any conclusions presented or hypothetical presented are based upon facts derived from publicly available information, and are also based on certain assumptions, including that there are no additional changes to current law, and that demographic information regarding retirement accounts also remains unchanged. Further, hypothetical scenarios presented are solely presented for the purposes of demonstrating available retirement options, and do not include any information, analysis, or conclusions regarding other areas of an individual’s financial future.
• Any charts, graphs, or visual aids presented herein are intended to demonstrate concepts more fully discussed in the text of this brochure, and which cannot be fully explained without the assistance of a professional from West Financial. Readers should not in any way interpret these visual aids as a device with which to ascertain investment decisions or an investment approach. Only your professional adviser should interpret this information.
• Some information in this presentation is gleaned from third party sources, and while believed to be reliable, is not independently verified.

This report has been prepared by West Financial Services, Inc. from original sources and data we believe to be reliable. This report is for informational purposes only and should not be construed as investment, legal or tax advice. Analysis of past market conditions may not predict future market activity.