by Ben Jennings, Lead Advisor, CFP®

The primary reason for freezing your credit has nothing to do with your credit. It's for your security.

Imagine a scene from one of the many films where clues to a central mystery are held in a Swiss bank (think of James Bond, or Jason Bourne!). The defining characteristic of a Swiss bank is the Swiss banker - a serious, mature gentleman with gray hair at his temples, dressed in a 3-piece suit, the pocket watch in his vest pocket somewhat anachronistic but adding to his gravitas. His paramount role is to ensure the security and privacy of the items his clients entrust to him and ensure these are accessed only by his clients.

Think of the credit freeze (also known as a credit lock) offered by each of the three major credit bureaus as your personal Swiss banker.

The “Keys” to Freezing Credit

A major goal of digital criminals who seek out details about your identity is to open a new financial account in your name, against which they can borrow, purchase, etc. To complete such a transaction, they not only need the information they might secretly obtain from you, but the institution where they want to open a new account also requires access to your credit report before granting credit. Without access to your credit file, no credit will be granted.

To use another banking analogy, such a transaction is like a safe deposit box at your local bank branch: opening the box requires two keys.

So, while you do everything you can to protect "your key" (use passwords that can't be easily guessed or generated, for example), we also want you to protect the other key - in this case, access to your credit file.

Follow the instructions (found here) to set up (or confirm you have already set up) a credit freeze at each of the three major credit bureaus.

The turn of the calendar to 2025 is a great time to take a few minutes to put your own Swiss banker in place!