Freeze your credit report?

Is someone trying to borrow money in your name? It's a danger we all live with in these days of identity theft and big-company data breaches.

That's why it's important to keep track of your credit record and banking or credit card accounts. Because, if you're a victim, the sooner you act the less havoc these criminals will wreak in your life.

One of the strongest defenses you have is to freeze your credit record with the big credit reporting agencies -- Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. That will stop anyone borrowing money in your name.

You have to do each one separately. But, thinking of your interests and in case this happens to you, I'm passing on the contact details that enable you to get the ball rolling.

Here they are:

Equifax: https://tinyurl.com/equi-freeze (1-800-685-1111)
Experian: https://tinyurl.com/Exper-freeze (1-888-397-3742)
TransUnion: https://tinyurl.com/TU-freeze (1-888-909-8872)

I collected this information from a very useful section on financial website The Balance (https://tinyurl.com/balance-freeze-report). I recommend spending a few minutes reading it.

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