chisue-
I am unaware of a national provision to do this. Several states have passed legislation to allow this, but most haven't. I believe that you can put a freeeze on your credit if you have been the victim of fraud, no matter where you live. However, I'm not convinced that you can freeze your credit just because you want to, unless you live in one of the "enlightened" states.

There has been a push for national legislation to allow this option to consumers, but a large part of the credit industry opposes it because it complicates their ease of doing business...and so far they've been able to lobby enough to stall this in Congress.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but that's my understanding.

here is an article I found on bankrate that talks about freezing your credit
karla

Here is a link that might be useful: freezing your credit

chisue here is a link that explains who will be able to freeze their credit in 2007.
www.suntimes.com/business/currency/185575,CST-FIN-c-theft25.article

It is just my opinion, but I think nationwide credit freezes are long overdue. Consumers shouldn't have to wait until they have been ripped off in order to be able to protect themselves. Ed Mierzwinski, U.S. PIRG consumer program director said it well. "The three credit reporting agencies oppose credit freezes because they think consumers' credit information is their product to sell. They make money every time they sell your information to banks, mortgage brokers, car dealerships and other retailers. Of course they don't want consumers to have control over their credit files; it takes away their bread and butter."

It seems that the credit bureaus could care less how many people are being ripped off so long as they can keep making money. I think what the credit bureaus are doing is a racket. Definition of the word racket, "A business that makes money by selling a solution to a problem that it created (or that it intentionally allows to continue to exist), specifically so that continuous purchases of the solution are always needed."

In this case the "solution" is the credit monitoring services they charge us for. We get to pay them to see who they sold us out to. They are making money coming and going but we are the ones paying the price when it falls into the wrong hands.

I really don't mind waiting a couple days for a freeze to be lifted in order to apply for a mortgage, credit cards, etc. I'd rather do this than worry about who is buying my information for ill gains. I think it is better to keep the barn door locked before the horse escapes. Not try to fix it after the fact.

Data Breaches 2006
idtheft.about.com/od/dataandstat1/a/2006_breaches.htm

Loan officer steals information from clients
www.gazettes.com/identitytheft12212006.html

Employers Beware: 50 Percent of all Identity Thefts Reported from Work
www.eveningtribune.com/articles/2006/12/30/ara/education_and_careers/733.txt

So...this is only available to residents of states that have passed legislation allowing it. Well, isn't THAT silly? Still, I'm grateful that Illinois has the law and I plan to act on it.

Now, to find out where to write and the exact words I must use to make this happen. Anyone know?

A few years ago when phone companies were indulging in "switching" we put a freeze on our account with Illinois Bell. (Or whatever it was then!)

myfask provided a link to a Sun-Times article that led to full information about the law as well as sample letters to the credit agencies. I was happy to find out that since we are over 65 we are exempt from paying each agency $10 to freeze a file and another $10 each should we want to "un-freeze" at some point.

Thanks, myfask! Next time I'll pursue the links before I ask for more help.

The "enlightened" state of WA requires you get ripped off worse.