August’s Just One Thing

We’ve been talking about security and protecting yourself from fraud this month and our Just One Thing is maybe the single most effective way to protect yourself. But it’s not necessarily right for everyone, right now.

Freezing your credit is a simple process that prevents any new creditors from accessing your credit report. If you’re not applying for new credit anytime soon freezing your credit is an easy way to protect yourself from fraud by preventing access to your credit report. If a credit card company can’t check your credit, they won’t open a new card in your name – whether it’s really you applying for it or not.

Not everyone should freeze their credit right now. If you’re applying for a mortgage, car loan, renting a new apartment, or otherwise need your credit to be accessible right now, you should wait. But if you don’t need your credit accessible right now, it’s a simple process.

How does it work? We have all the details right here, but the most important things to know are that it’s free, it doesn’t hurt your credit score, and you can un-freeze and re-freeze when you need to.