Experian’s web site was fairly easy to negotiate and I now have a nine-number PIN in my files to use if I ever want to unfreeze its report. Assuming I’ll be able to remember where I filed it. TransUnion’s was a bit more complicated. I think I’ve frozen it, but I may also have accidentally signed up for something called Credit Lock Plus for $19.95 a month, plus tax.
MORE with D.L.: President Kim Kardashian? You can bet on it
To start the process with Equifax — the company which may or may not have lost personal information such as my birthdate, address and Social Security number — it asked for my birthdate, address and the last six numbers of my Social Security number. But then there was some sort of glitch and the next dozen times I tried to access the site I got no further than, “System Currently Unavailable — Error 500. We’re sorry we cannot process your security freeze at this time. Please try back later.”
The whole thing has been very frustrating. Except, of course, for those three Equifax executives who, by sheerest coincidence, unloaded $1.8 million of their shares before the hack became public and the company’s stock started to tank.
Some people have all the luck. The rest of us just get hacked off.