A credit freeze is, in essence, the cheapest insurance policy there's ever been against economic identity theft.

You can ignore those ads you see for both the wholly legitimate LifeLock and those sleazoids at FreeCreditReport. That's like going into battle without enough weapons. A credit freeze, however, is the ultimate weapon -- even if a criminal manages to get hold of your sensitive financial information.

Recently, I had a situation where I was out of town and somebody wanted my mail. I had a locking mailbox, but the criminal took a hammer or crowbar to it and beat it open! Even though the criminal made off with account numbers, I had not suffered true economic identity theft because I had a credit freeze in place.

A credit freeze basically locks down your credit and prevents anyone from opening new lines of credit as if they were you. Credit freezes can be done online with each of the three main credit bureaus for a cost of anywhere from zero dollars to $10 depending on your age and/or other circumstances.

Once your credit freeze is in place, you receive a secret code that only you know. That's the part that prevents criminals from breaching your credit -- even if they know your Social Security number, mother's maiden name and other identifying info.

You can use your secret code to temporarily thaw your credit anytime for a nominal fee.


In the 18 years that I have been in the mortgage business, I have successfully closed over 3,000 loans that total to almost $1 billion in production. My goal is to make your mortgage experience as easy as possible. I like to offer other financial tips to protect my clients. Call me today for all your financial needs including 100 financing. 864-451-7894