Anyone freeze their DC credit?

[sewarsh]

DH & I both froze our credit because the seller of the house we bought was in jail for theft, armed robbery and assualt. He's got a gigantic amount of financial problems and we know for a fact that he has charged almost $200k to his elderly mom's name in credit card debt. (none of this known to us until after settlement).

Anyways, it had us thinking that maybe we should just freeze credit for our children since they won't need it for another 15 years or so! Anyone else done this? Is this overboard? Would hate to find out in 10 years or whatever that either of our DC has been a victim of identity theft.

[katydid1971]

I didn't know you could do that. How did you do it? How do you unfreeze when DC want to start credit or get a job? Will it effect their 529s?

[JBaxter]

I have never heard of such a thing.

[BayGirl2]

Didn't know you could freeze credit.

I have heard that its a good idea to get your DC's credit report on a regular basis. Once they have a SS# they can be a target of identity theft.

[Gena]

Didn't know you could freeze credit.

I have heard that its a good idea to get your DC's credit report on a regular basis. Once they have a SS# they can be a target of identity theft.

I've been told that you should NOT order a child's credit report on a regular basis, but only if you suspect the child's idenity has been stolen. The three credit reporting agengies do not knowingly keep files on children under the age of 13. But if you repeatedly request a report, it will force the agencies to open a file and that can increase the risk of identity fraud.

[sewarsh]

I've been told that you should NOT order a child's credit report on a regular basis, but only if you suspect the child's idenity has been stolen. The three credit reporting agengies do not knowingly keep files on children under the age of 13. But if you repeatedly request a report, it will force the agencies to open a file and that can increase the risk of identity fraud.

Actually, this makes sense becuase I went ahead to start the process of freezing my DC credit (so not to worry about it for years to come) and they did not have a file for them yet becuase they are a minor. I suppose that's good news becuase if they had a file that means there had been some activity.