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Having a baby is great news, but it can also be a scary thing. Not only are you solely responsible for your child’s well-being, but you also have a duty as a parent to ensure that your child is protected in every way possible – this includes protecting your child’s credit is included. Identity thieves often target children because the child’s credit is undocumented (or doesn’t really exist at all).
Although you might think that the government protects children from this type of theft, it does not.
state level only
The only federal law designed to protect a child’s credit identity is the Protecting Children from Identity Theft Act (enacted in 2015), which is not a law at all. In fact, there is less than a 2% chance that this legislation will pass according to various sources. The law would allow parents to create a credit report for a child and freeze that report to prevent identity theft. However, the legislation hasn’t been signed by the president, and it doesn’t look like it will even reach his desk.
This has prompted various states to enact similar laws at the state level, although not all states allow parents to create a credit report and freeze it. This is an important point. Recent media coverage of credit report freezing often leads people to believe that all states allow parents to create a credit report and then freeze it, but this is not true. Some states don’t allow credit report builds and freezes at all.
States That Legally Allow Freezes
There are only a few states that allow a parent to create a credit report for a minor and then freeze that report. The states are Arizona, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Montana, Nebraska, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, and Virginia. Wisconsin. Other states only allow a parent to undergo this procedure if the child is under 16 (this is often not helpful, as identity theft is common for children under 16).
credit bureau help
Some credit bureaus have taken matters into their own hands. Equifax, for example, will allow parents of minors (regardless of the state they live in) to create and freeze credit reports. Trans Union allows parents to see if any credit fraud has occurred, and also allows parents to create and submit credit reports if they live in the above states. Some credit bureaus in states that do not have laws dealing with minor credit identity theft allow parents to create and submit a credit report for a small fee—however, if the parent If the fraud can be proved, then that fee can be waived.
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