"I would have never thought that credit freezes are worth the hassle for us," Liz Weston, a financial planner and columnist at NerdWallet, told BuzzFeed News. "But at this point it's the prudent course."



The credit bureau Equifax disclosed Thursday that a massive hack had exposed the personal information of up to 143 million people, which would be about two-thirds of all credit card holders, according to Chi Chi Wu, an attorney at the National Consumer Law Center.

"There are so many entities who need to check your credit: when you're renting an apartment, getting insurance, a new cell phone, utilities," Weston said. "But at this point the breach is so great" that taking measures to safeguard your identity is worth it.



Requesting a credit freeze prevents thieves from using your identity to get loans or credit cards in your name, even if your personal information was compromised by the hack. You essentially pay to bar each of three credit reporting agencies — Equifax, TransUnion, and Experian — from providing a credit report without both your explicit permission and a personal identification number (PIN) that temporarily lifts the freeze. (Freezes do not affect financial institutions or companies you have an existing relationship with, only new ones.)

A consumer has to pay to institute the freeze with each of the three agencies -- which typically costs around $10 -- as well as to lift the freeze each time, which is why people don't tend to get them until after they've been the victim of a major breach or identity theft.

