Why does anyone leave their credit bureaus unlocked? Especially knowing your soon to be ex husband is already a criminal?
Iād go after the dealership more than anything, they are completely complicit in this deal, you always need a driverās license and need to verify who is signing the contract. They could get in big trouble for this. Iām assuming itās an FCA dealership, shocker.
That thread is a disaster
The fact that it was a dodge honestly didnāt even surprise me
She absolutely has a civil and criminal case on her hands. And Iām not blaming here, but anytime something bad happens, itās not a bad idea to ask āhow did I contribute to this breakdownā?
All three of my bureaus have been locked for years. If I want to open a new trade line I unlock, apply, relock. It adds 10 minutes to the process and has never stopped me from getting what I want, when I want it.
That seems like a good idea. Do you have to individually lock/unlock each bureau or is it possible to lock/unlock all 3 in one go?
Individually. I donāt pay for any service (though I get free credit monitoring x2), I just have accounts at all three bureaus, plus I leave a fraud warning on there for safe measure.
IIRC all three bureaus now support multi-factor auth, and if you held a gun to my head I donāt know any of the passwords (just that theyāre all different). I do know the unguessable pin to unfreeze/free though.
Use your favorite search engine for {Experian, Equifax, Transunion} freeze and you should find it. If you only find the paid option, keep looking.
Edit: when unlocking, I check which bureau they are going to run and only unlock that one. The worst of the three (who deserves the corporate death penalty) actually allows you to unfreeze for 1 recipient and provide then a one-time pin. The others are just a digital padlock that is either open or closed.
FCA f#&Kfest. Someoneās head or wallets gonna roll, thatās major fraud.
Auto fraud has been up recently according to my dealers. Weāve lost 2 full sizes this year, and @perdana ās dealers group lost an m5.
Wouldnt it be nice if credit bureaus were locked to begin with
they honestly should be considering we only need them a handful amount of times per year.
If only we were their customer, and not their product 
(We are 100,000% their product)
You work at a dealer? Wait, when did you become a broker? Congrats!
Even the dumbos at CNBC agree
Last time I looked at this they each charged on a lock and unlock. No longer the case?
IIRC they all have a āfreeā option. IIRC one of them charged my CC $1 (one time) as a verification step, but never to lock and unlock. Iāll see if I can dig up the respective links so I know if Iām recalling correctly or not.
I see the cost is state dependent. In California a freeze is $20/bureau and a temporary unfreeze is $30/bureau.
They really donāt want us using it
Added to the Credit Thread and included links:
Let me know how you make out. My suspicion is that there are some dark patterns at work to keep the free links hidden by the pay links, ala Turbo Tax.
Thanks! I saw this article explaining the cost per state which is what I remembered when I last looked. But after your post I found a FTC article saying they are free now.