As Mainers, we have many advantages: a scenic rockbound coast stretching from Kittery to Washington County; beautiful inland mountains, lakes and streams; and 300-plus towns and cities filled with friends and family willing to lend a helping hand.
We now have another advantage: the nation’s best File Freeze law, a helping hand designed to protect Pine Tree State residents from the threat of ID theft.
April is Financial Literacy Month, making it the perfect time to learn more about credit reports and what you can do to make sure your credit history is accurate and to take steps to prevent the misuse of your reports.
Gov. Paul LePage and Commissioner Anne Head of the Department of Professional and Financial Regulation join staff in the Department’s Bureau of Consumer Credit Protection in encouraging you to obtain and review your credit reports annually. They can be obtained from the large credit reporting agencies: Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. A free report can be obtained each year from each agency at AnnualCreditReport.com.
In addition to making sure our reports are correct, it’s important to do what we can to prevent identity theft. Armed with a person’s name, address, date of birth and other personal information, criminals in the U.S., Eastern Europe, Asia or any other corner of the world can open credit card accounts, be approved for auto loans, even rent an apartment in a victim’s name.
A file freeze, which is free under Maine’s new law, blocks new creditors from accessing your credit reports. If a creditor can’t see your credit reports, they won’t grant credit to someone pretending to be you.
At no charge, Maine residents age 16 and older can easily lock and unlock their credit reports with Equifax, Experian and TransUnion by calling these designated, safe and secure file freeze numbers:
Equifax: 1-800-349-9960
Experian: 1-888-397-3742
TransUnion: 1-888-909-8872
These numbers connect to automated call centers offered by the credit reporting agencies. Callers provide their Social Security number, date of birth, Maine ZIP code and street address or PO box number.
Within two weeks, you will be mailed a letter confirming your credit file was locked down. You also will be provided with a toll-free number and secret personal identification number to freely unlock or relock your credit files.
On the morning Maine’s new file freeze law became effective, I called the designated numbers, and within 15 minutes had locked down all three — Equifax, Experian and TransUnion — of my credit files. A few weeks later, on a Saturday morning, I called the special toll-free automated lock/unlock numbers again, provided my secret PIN and unlocked my files in order to apply for a vehicle loan just before noon that day. The system works: It’s free, and it’s very simple to use.
Like most people, I’ve been a customer of companies that have experienced a data breach in which thieves steal personal information about consumers. Given the complex electronic age we live in, crimes of this kind will continue and could certainly increase.
Existing financial service providers, such as insurance companies and any banks where you have credit cards or home equity lines of credit, will remain able to periodically check your credit status per the permission you previously granted them. However, current and future ID theft hackers who possess your personal information will be powerless to apply for any item which requires access to your credit report. So, for ID thieves it’s “Game Over.” Move on to a state that does not offer consumer safeguards as strong as Maine’s file freeze law.
The Bureau of Consumer Credit Protection is launching an initiative titled “Lock Down Your Credit Report…Lock Out ID Thieves.” As a longtime financial regulator and writer of the Downeaster Consumer Guide to Credit Reports and Credit Scores, which contains how-to information on obtaining credit reports and freezing those reports, I can’t emphasize enough how important it is to secure your credit file. The booklet is free to Maine residents and can be obtained by calling 1-800-332-8529. Online versions can be viewed at Credit.Maine.gov, under our “Publications” section.
You lock your home, you lock your vehicle. Why not lock down your credit files — for free?
David Leach, is principal examiner with the Maine Bureau of Consumer Credit Protection.