All You Need To Know About Credit Freeze

The awareness of credit freeze amount for credit card user is very minimal. Credit Cards are very secure tools and hardly have any issues regarding the protection of the applicant’s financial data. It is very crucial information that can be used for credit theft by the outsider.

Credit Freeze is a great tool that can refrain any outsider from prying on your personal information. It is also important because the freeze can help you get relaxed about any shortcomings regarding your info.

What is Credit Freeze?

Credit freeze also known as Security Freeze is a security measure that means that the credit bureau is refraining any other third party from getting the consumer’s credit report. This is an anti-fraud measure which is necessary since it can also indicate the crime of identity theft which we also call ID theft.

Due to Credit Freeze, Credit bureaus refrain from sharing any information regarding a person’s credit history to any third party. The third party can include the financial institutions as well. This also prevents thieves from using the credit information to open new accounts and further use it. Here the victims usually freeze their credit in order to restrain further damage from the theft. Until and unless the freeze is lifted, no other financial institutions or any other third parties will be able to get access to the consumer’s credit information.

However, a credit freeze does not have any impact on a person’s credit score. The theft can surely damage the score a little bit but once reported all the necessary measures will be taken.

How Does a Credit Freeze Work?

A credit freeze allows a user to control and restrict the access of any third party to their credit report. This will help the users in saving their crucial information from thieves, scammers any other unauthorized parties. The credit bureaus are obliged to help you freeze your credit information and will not allow access to any other entity than the authorized ones to get a hold of your information.

The credit freeze ceases to benefit the user when there is a risk of ID theft or it has already been done. Because with the help of the information, a thief can open new accounts and make purchases with the same. Thus, by freezing the credit, you can save yourself from all this trouble.

Although a credit freeze is a great defense tool that is not the complete solution. From the earlier example of the theft, with the newly opened accounts, information has already been leaked and used for further more financial fraud. It can also mean that the purchases have already been made and the funds are already transferred.

All these reasons are important enough to keep your bank details and credit details tightly protected and closely monitor the account activity. Not just in order to detect any suspicious activities but it will also help you gain more knowledge about your credit history.

Advantages of Freezing Your Credit

• Freezing your credit will reduces the chances of someone creating a bogus credit account under your name.
• You will be ensured that all your information is safe and secure.
• Credit Freeze does not and will not influence your credit score anyhow.
• It will also refrain you from impulsively applying for a new credit card at any store since unfreezing credit can take a little bit of time.
• You can also choose when to unfreeze your credit according to your convince or in dire need.

Apart from credit freeze, there are many other steps you can take in order to keep your information secure which can include keeping secure passwords on all your bank, email, and social media accounts as well. Another way is limiting the amount of information you share online, not just on social platforms but also generally while signing in for an application and asking for information more than needed.

To implement the Credit Freeze, you will need to contact the Credit Bureaus in India. There are majorly 6 bureaus in India which include: TransUnion Credit Information Bureau (India) Limited (CIBIL), Credit Rating Information Services of India Limited (CRISIL), Equifax, ICRA (formerly called Investment Information and Credit Rating Agency of India Limited), CRIF High Mark, and Experian.

All these agencies will help you cover up all your information from getting leaked or stolen further.

Conclusion

Credit Freeze is a great option in order to secure all your credit information from getting stolen. Even though it is not the ultimate solution but can be taken as a preventive measure to keep things on track if any suspicious activities are found in the account. A user can ask the credit bureaus to freeze the information and that will refrain the bureaus to share any of your credit information which will further help you prevent from getting any fraudulent account from being created on your behalf.