What keeps someone from applying for a credit card in your name? Truthfully, very little. We have all seen the reports of identity theft in the news, but you may not know that this has become a truly rampant problem affecting a growing portion of the overall population.
How do you protect yourself? There are dozens of advertisements for services which claim to protect you from identity theft. Most are worthless, a few have some merit, but the good news is that you can protect yourself for $9 if you are a resident of Georgia (other states may be up to $30, if you have been an ID theft victim it's free).
It's called a credit "freeze" and essentially it means that nobody can open credit in your name unless they provide a secret 10-digit pin number. Simple & effective.
Here are direct links for issuing a credit freeze for each of the 3 credit bureaus;
notes: You must pay the $3 fee per bureau which means $9/person or $18/couple. You may also be required to pay a small fee to "thaw" your credit profile when you actually do want to apply for credit. But it's a small inconvenience for the protection it provides.
Do it now and save yourself from the identity theives.
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