TransUnion Discontinues Free Credit Freezes
In a previous post, Voting with Dollars: Credit Bureaus, I mentioned freezing credit at each of the bureaus. In
Frozen Credit (Actually Just Water)
that post I also said that freezing your credit was free at TransUnion. In fact, it was… but today I received a message from the credit bureau that it will no longer be free. Maybe signs of inflation? 
At any rate, here is an excerpt from the e-mail:
“ We have offered the Security Freeze services free of charge through our online self-service channel since its launch in 2008. As mentioned in our online Terms & Conditions, this service was being offered free of charge, but subject to change at any time. Beginning July 14, 2009, TransUnion will assess fees for Security Freeze services through the online channel as permitted by state law…”
TransUnion has provided a fee table that details the fees for each state. The good news is that the fee is no higher than $10 for all states, and still free in many. Well, except Delaware — sorry Delaware! Appartently in Delaware freezing credit takes lower temperatures, so it is $20.
So despite this fee change, I am a big advocate of freezing your credit. If you do not have any upcoming purchases within the next few years that will require credit, I recommend freezing credit scores on each bureau. This is the best way to protect yourself from credit identity theft. So if you are planning on freezing your credit, be sure to make it to TransUnion before July 14th before the price is increased.
Other Blogosphere Posts on Freezing Credit:
Fine Tuned Finances (How to Freeze Your Credit and Stop Identity Thieves in Their Tracks)
what is the benefit of freezing credit – doesn’t it just make it harder to get credit and to get things that check credit like insurance? Seems like I should just get credit monitoring instead.
greg
Greg: Thanks for your question. Freezing credit does require you to “thaw” your credit report if you want to obtain new credit. Usually you can ask the potential lender which bureau they check, and thaw it only for that bureau. This usually requires going on line an entering a PIN that you receive when you froze your report.
To me monitoring is mostly reactive where freezing your credit is more proactive. Monitoring is something you can do for free by checking your report through annualcreditreport.com. Although it requires a little more diligence (by checking your reports through annualcreditreport.com you must check periodically, whereas with monitoring you can have alerts).