Q: Does a credit freeze impact or protect my bank accounts? A:

No. Well, a criminal would not be able to walk into a bank and open a new account in your name.

However, since your existing accounts remain open, a credit freeze does not prevent account takeover fraud — which is when criminals take over your bank account and steal your money. first:

Sign up for a free account with creditkarma.com to get free credit monitoring and notifications of suspicious activity.

Freeze your credit at all three main credit bureaus.

Next, do these four things to protect your info, money & identity:

Monitor your financial accounts Whether or not your info was exposed by Equifax, you need to check your accounts on a daily basis in order to spot any suspicious activity you don’t recognize. The sooner you spot it, the sooner you can report it and get everything straightened out. Plus, if your info was exposed by Equifax, criminals can still carry out fraud on your existing accounts.

Don’t click on any officiallooking emails or texts about the breach, your info, your protection etc. — they are probably from scammers. Equifax will send official notifications by mail. Change your passwords:

use the same password for multiple accounts that contain your personal and/or sensitive information. Make sure to use a unique password — ideally a long phrase that only you would know — for each of your online accounts. This goes for your email accounts and any other online account that contains your personal info, like payment info, address etc.

Turn on two-factor authentication for every financial account, as well as any online account that contains your personal and sensitive information.

Q: Is Life Lock just as good as a credit freeze?

A:

No! In fact, you can get free credit monitoring at creditkarma.com.