Why YSK: Locking your credit with the main 3 places is not enough.
https://innovis.com/ have grown enough to require locking as providers are using them as a single check source.
There’s also https://www.chexsystems.com/ which many banks use for opening checking accounts. They’re unique because they handle accounts that don’t show up in a credit report.
Someone explain to me what that means. You mean you have to ask different agencies when asking for a loan? Wouldn’t you just talk to the bank you want the loan from?
Basically all employers and financial services in the US use a top secret magic number assigned to citizens to identify them and create accounts. They also all use this number to involuntarily track us. The tracking services then hand out data dumps of our personal information (including the number) to identity thieves.
Now the only way to stop identity thieves from creating accounts in our name is “freezing” our credit report with the largest 3 (now 4) tracking services. If a financial service cannot look up the credit report, they won’t make an account.
This should help: https://www.usa.gov/credit-freeze
It’s a fraud prevention method to combat identity theft.
No, the loan servicer asks these agencies.