Why Minnesota Consumers Will Continue to Pay for Credit Report Freezes and Locks After the Equifax Data Breach

As of right now, Minnesota consumers can get free credit freezes from Equifax and free credit locks from both Equifax and TransUnion. (Just note that signing up for TransUnion’s free TrueIdentity credit locking service involves signing an arbitration agreement. This limits your legal rights to sue TransUnion.) However, if you want to block access to your Experian credit report, there are fees involved.

Unfortunately, if you want full credit report protection in the wake of the Equifax data breach, you cannot ignore Experian. Even with locked or frozen TransUnion and Equifax credit reports, a scammer could still open a bogus account in your name by going through a creditor that only pulls Experian credit reports. So, unless Experian bows to mounting pressure, Minnesota consumers can’t freeze or lock all three of their credit reports without paying a price.

Possible Reasons Why Experian Still Charges Minnesota Consumers Frees for Credit Report Freezes and Locks

Minnesota consumers, consumer advocates, lawmakers, and even Equifax have asked Experian to offer free credit report freezes and locks. Yet, the credit bureau refuses. Credit experts have a few ideas as to why Experian is holding out. Here are a few of the most popular.

• There is a lot of dysfunction in Washington right now. So, Experian doesn’t believe that a federal law banning fees for credit report freezes and locks will come down the pipes any time soon.
• If Experian has fewer frozen or locked credit reports than TransUnion or Equifax, it will be easier for the company to sell their files to creditors.
• Experian is telling the truth, and sincerely wants to evaluate options before contributing toward consumer protection efforts.

It is interesting to note that, after the Equifax hack was revealed, Experian added a Free Dark Web Scan option to it’s website. Through a provided link, Minnesota consumers can put in their email address and find out whether or not Experian finds it on the Dark Web. When the search results appear, consumers then find out that Experian can look for other pieces of their personal data on the Dark Web.

Of course, in order to find out if any of this other information is in the hands of hackers, there is a fee. Interested consumers in Minnesota and other states must pay $9.99 to enroll in Experian’s IdentityWorks Plus. Or, for $19.99 a month, they can choose IdentityWorks Premium for full, three-bureau credit monitoring.

One Way that Minnesota Consumers Can Protect Themselves Against Identity Theft for Free

There are numerous identity theft protection options out there, many cost money, while a few are free. One absolutely free thing that Minnesota consumers can and should do is check their credit reports once every 12 months. The Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACTA) entitles all consumers to free copies of their credit reports from the three major credit bureaus every twelve months. You can request credit reports from TransUnion, Equifax, and Experian from their individual websites. Although, it is easier and faster to go to www.annualcreditreport.com and get all three at once.

If, while going through your credit reports, you spot obviously bogus transactions, it’s likely that you are an identity theft victim. At this point, you should file a police report. Then, call Credit Repair Lawyers of America in Minnesota. Once you contact our firm, an experienced credit attorney will get to work fixing your credit reports. We will get fraudulent items removed no matter what it takes. And even if it requires filing lawsuits on your behalf, this service is free to clients.

The Free and Legal way to Get Better Credit

Don’t let credit report damage from identity theft bring your credit score down. At Credit Repair Lawyers of America, we’ve been cleaning up credit reports for consumers since 2008 for free. How do we do it? The law allows us to collect our fees and costs from the defendants in any successful action.  This is why our clients pay nothing for the work we do.

Let’s start the conversation about what we can do for your credit. Set up your free consultation today by calling Attorney Gary Nitzkin at (612) 235-4458 or sending him a message through our contact page.

For more information about Free Credit Repair After Identity Theft, please visit https://creditrepairlawyersam.com/minnesota/id-theft/.