Maryland residents access to credit report freeze

From now residents at Maryland will have the right to freeze their credit reports. According to a law that took place yesterday, Maryland joined 35 other states and the districts of Columbia that that allow the residents to place a security freeze on the sensitive information about their credit score. Five other states allow this facility to the victims of identity thefts only.

The security freeze on consumer’s credit reports saves them from identity thefts from opening fraud accounts by their names and getting new credits. With the security freeze in place, the credit reporting agencies cannot release consumer credit information without his/her permissions. Although this law doesn’t prevent existing banks and credit card companies from accessing consumers credit files for legitimate purposes.

The credit reporting agencies Equifax, Experian and TrnasUnion are allowed to charge up to $5 for adding security freeze to the consumer’s credit files. And this service will be free of cost for the victims of identity thefts.

According to FTC (Federal Trade Commission), Maryland is ranked 11th in the nation among the accidents of identity thefts with 10080 fraud cases taking place in 2006.
Maryland has already taken some steps to avoid the cases of identity thefts. Social security numbers were removes from the paychecks one year back.