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Recent News and Articles on the Keywords: freeze + credit + freezes  Related to the article below (Last Update: 8/4/2008)

Europe's junk bond market in deep freeze Telegraph.co.uk, United Kingdom - Companies in Britain and Europe have failed to place a single high-yield bond since the credit crisis began a year ago, leaving them ever more vulnerable to ... Georgia credit freeze law goes into effect Friday Atlanta Journal Constitution,  USA - Jul 31, 2008 By RUSSELL GRANTHAM Georgians can now give themselves a little extra protection against identity theft by freezing their credit records under a state law ... Precautions To Prevent Identity Theft CBS 46 all 3 news articles » On Your Side: Credit Freezes WRDW-TV, GA - Aug 1, 2008 Starting Friday, people in Georgia can freeze their credit records just by making a phone call and paying a small fee. A credit freeze blocks any businesses ... State mandates low-cost, free credit freezes Coastal Courier Georgians May Now Freeze Credit Reports WXIA-TV Law lets Georgians 'freeze' their credit to protect against ... Macon Telegraph Columbus Ledger-Enquirer - Online Athens all 21 news articles » Consumer Reports Investigation Reveals Government Among Biggest ... MarketWatch - Consider putting a freeze on your credit files unless you are currently seeking a loan or a credit card. A credit freeze effectively prevents identity ... Starting today, $9 will freeze credit reports Gainesville Times, GA - Jul 31, 2008 Consumers can call credit reporting agencies and ask them to freeze their credit files, meaning the agencies may not release the file until a consumer ... BNP Paribas Dodges Bullet a Year After Triggering Credit Freeze Bloomberg - Aug 3, 2008 4 (Bloomberg) -- BNP Paribas SA, which helped trigger a global credit seizure a year ago this week, has emerged from the crisis as France's healthiest bank. ...OTC:BNPQY - BIT:BNP - AMS:BNPA The Big Freeze: So what happens now? FT Alphaville, UK - In Part I of the series, today, Gillian Tett, the FT?s capital markets editor, examines the reasons for the credit crisis ? which began in the US suburbs ... Did banks collude to freeze the auction rate securities (ARS) market? BloggingStocks - Aug 3, 2008 With the credit crunch that began a year ago, these brokers could no longer afford to prop up the auctions. So it comes as no surprise that the brokers ...UBS Nouriel Roubini InvestmentNews, NY - Even [Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben S.] Bernanke said even if you freeze the resets of the mortgages, people are underwater, and they're going to walk ... 3 News NZ AMP unit in NZ freezes investor cash The Australian, Australia - Jul 31, 2008 AMP said none of its other investment funds are affected by the property fund freeze. The New Zealand dollar fell to a new 10-month low of $US0.7288 from ... Bernard Hickey: Trusts' deep freeze New Zealand Herald Mirvac, AMP Freeze Fund Withdrawals as Property Prices Slump Bloomberg Mirvac freezes $240m of investors' funds Business Spectator Sydney Morning Herald - Bloomberg all 100 news articles »  ASX:MGR - ASX:AMP - NZE:WIN

Real experiences with credit freezes

Credit freezes, which are not yet available in every state, prevent creditors and other credit bureaus from accessing your credit reports without your permission, unless you are under legal investigation or the creditors requesting your file already do business with you.

More protective than a fraud alert, some find credit freezes to be a godsend, but others loathe the inconvenience. For a taste of what it's like to place, live with and lift a credit freeze, consider these readers' experiences.

Credit freezes:

• Placing a freeze is a simple process
  
• PIN doesn't make unfreezing easy
  
• Happy with the freeze, frustrated with timely removal
  

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Placing freeze is a simple process
I froze my credit file and that of my spouse, as permitted by North Carolina's law. Of the six letters sent to the three credit reporting agencies asking them to freeze the accounts belonging to my wife and myself, five went into effect within two weeks, as confirmed by letters from the credit-reporting agencies. For some reason, presumably a misplaced letter, one credit bureau did not confirm to me that they had frozen access to my account. A follow-up letter after a month fixed the problem. I was satisfied with the response by all three credit agencies. The process of placing the freezes was relatively painless.
-- Charles

PIN doesn't make unfreezing easy
My experience with lifting a credit freeze was one of total frustration -- especially with one of the bureaus. Even with the PIN they provided, I was required to provide identification. So I sent them copies of my driver's license and they sent back form letters that said: "You need to provide identification." Eventually, they specified that I needed to provide a copy of my Social Security card. They had never requested that in previous communication.

Why bother with a PIN, if you have to prove who you are anyway? Trying to talk to a "live" person on the phone is next to impossible with these three credit bureaus.
-- Frank

My husband and I have credit freezes. I must say, to remove the freeze temporarily is easy with two of the credit bureaus. However, dealing with the people at the other agency is a complete pain. I ask them time and again why they make it so difficult to unfreeze an account when the access code is given. You can't convince them that it is a problem with their system as they want to argue. I spent four weeks trying to unfreeze my credit report with them while trying to refinance my house. In the end, though they claimed that they had unfrozen my report, my loan broker still could not view my credit report file.
-- Disgusted

Happy with the freeze, frustrated with timely removal
I have a credit freeze on all my accounts here in California. I am happy to have it and will continue to use it. But, I've noticed that the credit agencies and the credit granters don't like it and have seemingly gone out of their way to make it difficult to keep a credit freeze. For example, each agency has a different way to unfreeze an account. So when a creditor wanted to check my credit I asked them which credit report they wanted unfrozen. They said they wanted all three, so I told them forget it. It wasn't worth the hassle -- I would do without the credit line extension.
-- JIMC