The recent Equifax Inc. (NYSE:EFX) hack is bad news for anyone with credit. However, there are options for those affected by the Equifax breach.
Those that have had their information stolen in the Equifax breach have a couple of options available to them. The first is freezing their credit. This option is the best bet for protection, but it is also the most complicated.
Here’s how to freeze your credit. You will have to get in contact with three different credit agencies: Equifax, Experian and TransUnion (NYSE:TRU). Each company will require you to file documents requesting a credit freeze and they may also have you pay a fee for the action.
A credit freeze makes it so that new loans and credit accounts can’t be opened in that person’s name. To unlock credit, a person is given a PIN. The U.S. government can still see someone’s credit during a freeze, but creditors can’t, reports Bankrate.com.
There’s also another option available to those hit in the Equifax breach. This option is setting up fraud alert. It lasts for 90 days and requires creditors to get in contact with the person before checking their credit. This option also only requires the person to contact one of the three agencies mentioned above.
The Equifax breach was announced last week and it resulted in 143 million people having their information stolen. This includes names, addresses, social security numbers and more. You can follow this link to learn more about the data breach and see if you were affected by it.
EFX stock is down 5% as of Monday morning.
As of this writing, William White did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.
