Equifax, noted credit bureau and perpetuator of consumer debt in the United States, has been hacked. Reports are estimating that 143 million people have been impacted by this. This is possibly the worst data breach in history, not because it’s the biggest (it’s not), but because of the breadth of the impact. Equifax has surrendered social security numbers, dates of birth, addresses, and other incredibly sensitive information in this breach. To make matters worse, there are a few in leadership in the company that are accused of insider trading base on this information.
In order to make things right, Equifax is offering free credit monitoring to those affected. This sounds nice, but the fine print of that offer is making sure you don’t participate in a class-action lawsuit against them. I don’t think you should take Equifax’s peace offering. Here’s what you should do.
- Freeze your credit bureau accounts. This will cost 5-10 bucks per credit bureau, but it will be worth it. Freezing your credit requires lenders to verify your identity when credit is pulled, making it harder for a fraudster to steal your identity. You’ll need to visit Experian, Equifax, and Transunions websites or give them a call to do this.
- Monitor your own credit. You can do this at annualcreditreport.com once a year for free. This is a good habit to get in at least one time a year.
- Sign up for identity theft protection services from a good independent provider. Someone like Zander insurance is good because in addition to monitoring your credit and alerting you to potential problems, they also assign a case-worker to your case if/when your identity is stolen. This helps with the real hassle of fixing stolen credit by giving you and advocate to help convince all of those lenders out there that you are who you say you are.
I’m not a fan of FICO and the current credit reporting practices in this country. Some folks are so obsessed with their credit scores that they borrow money just so they can borrow more money. This is the opposite of what we’re trying to help people do.