Credit Safety


Freezing Your Credit Report at Each Credit Bureau

Visit each credit bureau’s site to get more information about placing a security freeze on your credit report.

Info from here.

How To Opt-Out of Credit Card Offers

Fortunately, Federal law gives you the right to opt-out of credit card prescreening. You can visit www.optoutprescreen.com or call 1-888-5OPTOUT (1-888-567-8688) to remove your name off prescreened lists for a certain number of years or indefinitely. By opting-out, you're telling the credit bureaus that you don't want your information sold to credit card companies.

In order to opt out, you'll need to provide your name and address to confirm your identity. Your social security number is optional, but may help the credit bureau process your request. Before entering your social security number, confirm that you're on the correct website. Look for an "https://" at the beginning of the hyperlink and a lock in the address bar indicating that you're on a secure website.

Stop Credit Card Telemarketers

Some credit related telemarketers may call you to sign up for credit card insurance, interest rate reduction programs, or other marketing related services. These services are often scams to get your payment information for identity theft or to enroll you in services that you don't need.

You can stop telemarketers from contacting you by registering with the National Do Not Call Registry. The registry is free and reduces all the telemarketing calls you receive - not just the ones you receive from credit card companies and other related services.

You can register your phone number by going to www.donotcall.gov or by calling 1-888-382-1222 from the number you want to register. For example, if you want to register your cell phone, call from your cell phone.

Note that this doesn't apply to calls from your existing credit card issuers related to existing accounts.