The companies offering to protect you from ID theft are a waste of money.

You’ve probably heard a lot about credit locks, as companies spend millions of dollars on radio and TV advertising for you to spend $10 to $25 a month. They say they can protect you from identity theft by putting a credit lock on your file. This isn’t necessarily a bad idea, but is a credit freeze better? 

The difference between the two is that a credit lock is regulated by credit bureaus, while a credit freeze is regulated by the government. Also, a freeze is free for the consumer, and all you have to do is contact the three credit bureaus. Everyone should do this, especially those looking to buy a house.

“A credit freeze is cheaper and stops the problem before it arises.”

If someone steals your identity and messes up your credit, that can take a very long time to fix. It can cause you to have a higher interest rate and even prevent you from purchasing a property. Therefore, if you want to buy a house in the next few months, prevent that from happening by freezing your credit for free. 

Once it is frozen and you need to use it, lifting the credit freeze is very easy nowadays. If you’re working with your loan officer to get your pre-approval going, just unfreeze your credit with the credit bureaus, which you can do online. 

Therefore, there is no reason to be paying a company that’s going to tell you after the fact that there was a problem when you can prevent the problem in the first place for free and make sure you can buy that house. If you have a question about any of this, feel free to reach out to me anytime by phone call or email. As always, I am happy to help you with all of your real estate needs.