editor Both the terms credit lock and credit freeze restricts the access to the credit reports of an individual. While credit freezes come free, credit locks are offered as a part of the expanded paid service.
Both the tools credit freeze and credit locks are security measures which help protect against hijacking criminals from stealing your credit history for the purpose of identity theft and other credit frauds. A credit freeze can temporarily restrict access to your credit report, which may affect your home loan eligibility. When you apply either a credit lock or a credit freeze to your accounts at the credit bureau, it restricts the access to your credit file, which limits the checks on credit that are considered the first step while application processing for credit cards or loans.
A credit lock or credit freeze may seem a wise idea when you feel you can be victimized for identity theft or you may have a risk of personal data stealing, which can be compromised through the data breach or any other potential abuse. Apart from these cases, for mild risk you can opt for a fraud alert as a better alternative. Therefore, you must use a credit score checker for accurately finding your credit score for various loaning purposes.
What Is A Credit Lock?
Just like a credit freeze freezes your account access, the credit lock option limits all the accesses to your credit portfolio by activating and disabling the lock system through the website or the app.
The service can offer the facilities including the locks which may differ among different credit bureaus. There are various features which your credit bureau may offer to you:
- Credit reports access for monthly to all the bureau accounts
- Alerts for updating any new credit activity on the accounts from any credit bureau, for detecting unauthorized actions
- Identity theft insurance of up to $1 million
- Telephonic assistance by the credit bureau for credit access or fraud resolution
Every credit bureau may require you to provide your identity proof while setting up the credit lock system on your account. You can easily submit the required documents or details electronically through mail or in hard copy format.
There are almost similar security benefits available for the credit lock as those of a credit freeze, along with the limitations on the credit account access are the same too. A credit lock is the best investment in your peace of mind, protecting your creditworthiness from unauthorized access and identity theft. The criminal exposure of your credit file remains protected against, while any legitimate access for any new lender to whom you may have applied for the credit or loan facility can also be restricted.
What Is A Credit Freeze?
You must know that the laws allow us to freeze and unfreeze the credit on our credit report from each credit bureau without any cost.
You can limit all the access to your credit history through the credit freeze option, which also requires you to request a separate freeze from different credit bureaus. For advanced security options, you may have to pay more for providing an extra wall to your credit report.
The credit bureaus provide application of their portals and you can toggle the freeze option On and Off anytime with the app. Moreover, the law instructs the credit bureaus to freeze the account within 24 hours of the request received by online or phone, and also they need to lift the freeze within an hour when you request to do so. Placing a credit freeze before applying for second-hand car finance can safeguard your credit report from unauthorized access and potential fraud. Though you can easily turn the freeze toggle on or off in real-time by toggling the security freeze option on your credit bureau app or online portal for your account.
You must know that the credit freeze option is effective for thwarting unauthorized access to your credit report, which also limits the authorized access to the credit portfolio. As the credit bureau limits the lender’s ability to check your credit report, you have to thaw the credit freeze option before applying for any credit card or loan facility.
How To Remove Credit Lock and Credit Freeze
There is the easiest and fastest way to remove any credit freeze, which is possible via the toggle option on the credit bureau app. Once you have frozen your credit account in all the credit bureaus, you must know that thawing it at each of the bureaus separately is important too.
You may have the option to thaw your credit account permanently, or you can lift the credit freeze option temporarily when you need the account access.
Also, removing the credit lock may require you to flip the virtual toggle switch online through the app or the credit bureau website. When you don’t need any access to your credit account, you can simply relock the account by turning the switch ON.
Bottom Line
The credit lock and credit freeze options work relatively well for the credit account security at the credit bureaus. These options do not cost extra and you can take these extreme measures to lock down the credit portfolio as securely as possible, which limits the access to both the lenders and criminals from seeking the data.
Though these options provide excellent credit data security, you must be using these options when you seek a new credit line which requires extra financial planning.
Author Bio:
Abhishek Kumar is your common digital hooman with marketing as profession, finance as a curious habit, and sports as a survival mechanism. He has written this post for IndiaLends, leading website for Personal Loans in India
