{"id":1654,"date":"2014-02-11T10:58:41","date_gmt":"2014-02-11T15:58:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/?p=1654"},"modified":"2025-08-24T06:38:45","modified_gmt":"2025-08-24T10:38:45","slug":"im-freezing-credit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/index.php\/im-freezing-credit\/","title":{"rendered":"I&#8217;m Freezing and Your Credit Should Be Too &#8211; Protect Your Identity"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>This has been a cold winter. \u00a0I am not sure how accurate they are, but the Farmers Almanac is pretty close to what they predicted. \u00a0For areas above where I live, it has not only been cold but is has been snowy!<\/p>\n<p>I have been in the south now for 18 years. \u00a0Maybe my blood is getting thinner as the saying suggests, but I am definitely freezing this winter. \u00a0Being cold has forced me to put on more protective layers to stay safe, warmer, and cozy.<\/p>\n<p>Did you know you can &#8220;freeze&#8221; your credit to help protect yourself, and that of your family, from having someone obtain your identity and allow them to buy that car in Montana (even though you have never been there) or open that credit card for which you will start getting billed?<\/p>\n<p>While the cost to freeze your credit varies from state to state, you can request your credit be frozen. \u00a0When it is frozen, you will be sent a protective code that will allow you and only you to &#8220;thaw&#8221; your credit in the event you have to ave your records accessed. &#8220;Thawing&#8221; is a very simple and fast process &#8211; if you safely retain the code that is sent to you.<\/p>\n<p>My credit has been frozen for years and it cost me $3 for each credit bureau. \u00a0Not long ago, someone asked me to join the checking account of their non-profit. \u00a0Going through the process of adding me showed me that &#8220;freezing&#8221; really works. \u00a0They could not access my credit info until I &#8220;thawed&#8221; my account for them.<\/p>\n<h2>Protecting Your Identity Is Easy&gt;&gt;<\/h2>\n<p>You can do it safely by visiting the three bureaus, one at a time, at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.freeze.equifax.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Equifax.com<\/a> , <a href=\"https:\/\/www.experian.com\/freeze\/center.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Experian.com<\/a> , and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.transunion.com\/personal-credit\/credit-disputes\/credit-freezes.page\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Transunion.com<\/a> .<\/p>\n<p>Those who you may still have business with will be able to access your credit report, as they normally do, without hassle.<\/p>\n<p>Protect yourself, freeze your credit. Remember to keep the website links stored and SECURELY store your code to thaw when you need to.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Leave a comment below and let all of us know &#8211; 1) the cost for your state and 2) how easy the process was.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This has been a cold winter. \u00a0I am not sure how accurate they are, but the Farmers Almanac is pretty close to what they predicted. \u00a0For areas above where I live, it has not only been cold but is has been snowy! I have been in the south now for 18 years. \u00a0Maybe my blood [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,22,31,10,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1654","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-debt","category-encouragement","category-identity-theft","category-personal","category-planning"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>I&#039;m Freezing and Your Credit Should Be Too - Protect Your Identity - Financial Focus<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Did you know you can &quot;freeze&quot; your credit to help protect yourself, and that of your family, from having someone obtain your identity and allow them to buy that car in Montana (even though you have never been there) or open that credit card for which you will start getting billed?\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/index.php\/im-freezing-credit\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"I&#039;m Freezing and Your Credit Should Be Too - Protect Your Identity - Financial Focus\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Did you know you can &quot;freeze&quot; your credit to help protect yourself, and that of your family, from having someone obtain your identity and allow them to buy that car in Montana (even though you have never been there) or open that credit card for which you will start getting billed?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/index.php\/im-freezing-credit\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Financial Focus\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"http:\/\/financialfocus\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-02-11T15:58:41+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-08-24T10:38:45+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Parkey Thompson\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Parkey Thompson\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\\\/mainsite\\\/index.php\\\/im-freezing-credit\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\\\/mainsite\\\/index.php\\\/im-freezing-credit\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Parkey Thompson\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\\\/mainsite\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/5dc1a9b7d2ae31d9322fcfdace3c93e4\"},\"headline\":\"I&#8217;m Freezing and Your Credit Should Be Too &#8211; Protect Your Identity\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-02-11T15:58:41+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-08-24T10:38:45+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\\\/mainsite\\\/index.php\\\/im-freezing-credit\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":372,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\\\/mainsite\\\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Debt\",\"Encouragement\",\"Identity Theft\",\"Personal\",\"Planning\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\\\/mainsite\\\/index.php\\\/im-freezing-credit\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\\\/mainsite\\\/index.php\\\/im-freezing-credit\\\/\",\"name\":\"I'm Freezing and Your Credit Should Be Too - Protect Your Identity - Financial Focus\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\\\/mainsite\\\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2014-02-11T15:58:41+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-08-24T10:38:45+00:00\",\"description\":\"Did you know you can \\\"freeze\\\" your credit to help protect yourself, and that of your family, from having someone obtain your identity and allow them to buy that car in Montana (even though you have never been there) or open that credit card for which you will start getting billed?\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\\\/mainsite\\\/index.php\\\/im-freezing-credit\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\\\/mainsite\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\\\/mainsite\\\/\",\"name\":\"Financial Focus\",\"description\":\"Personal Financial Coaching\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\\\/mainsite\\\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\\\/mainsite\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\\\/mainsite\\\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Financial Focus\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\\\/mainsite\\\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\\\/mainsite\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\\\/mainsite\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2012\\\/10\\\/financial-focus-logo.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\\\/mainsite\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2012\\\/10\\\/financial-focus-logo.jpg\",\"width\":\"400\",\"height\":\"72\",\"caption\":\"Financial Focus\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\\\/mainsite\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"http:\\\/\\\/financialfocus\",\"https:\\\/\\\/x.com\\\/financialfocus1\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\\\/mainsite\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/5dc1a9b7d2ae31d9322fcfdace3c93e4\",\"name\":\"Parkey Thompson\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/07cc95deb83f1e12d0c9eaf6bbfea31df95bc8daaf889b877ffb444c3d9311bb?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/07cc95deb83f1e12d0c9eaf6bbfea31df95bc8daaf889b877ffb444c3d9311bb?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/07cc95deb83f1e12d0c9eaf6bbfea31df95bc8daaf889b877ffb444c3d9311bb?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Parkey Thompson\"},\"description\":\"After many years of coaching others in the workplace, Parkey Thompson decided to follow his passions and focus on providing personal financial coaching, strategic planning and direction setting to individuals, families, religious organizations and small businesses by starting Financial Focus. Throughout his personal and professional life, Parkey has experienced first-hand and overcome many of the challenges he now helps others navigate on a daily basis. For over twenty years, Parkey held various leadership positions across multiple companies, including companies such as General Electric and IBM. In 2005, he thoughtfully decided to use his leadership skills to help others significantly improve their own personal finance, career, life, and business financial situations. Parkey is a certified financial coach, compassionately helping his clients navigate through challenging financial and life decisions on a daily basis . He is a Sunday School teacher, volunteer and has served on several boards \\\/ committees. He enjoys passionately motivating and helping families, individuals, businesses, and churches envision and achieve their dreams. In addition to Financial Focus, Parkey is a contributing financial writer to local magazines and newsletters, a former frequent guest on \u201cMornings\u201d with Lorri Allen and Larry Estepa on the FamilyNet TV and radio network, and a radio contributor to Family Life Radio's Intentional Living program. More than anything, Parkey and his family live what he teaches others. Parkey and his family are debt free and live without credit cards and on a plan! Parkey and his wife, Lisa, live in Cumming, Georgia and are newly empty nesters. They three have three children \u2013 Kayla (and husband Micah), Morgan (and husband Ryan) and Micah.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\\\/\\\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\\\/\",\"https:\\\/\\\/x.com\\\/financialfocus1\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\\\/mainsite\\\/index.php\\\/author\\\/parkey-thompson\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"I'm Freezing and Your Credit Should Be Too - Protect Your Identity - Financial Focus","description":"Did you know you can \"freeze\" your credit to help protect yourself, and that of your family, from having someone obtain your identity and allow them to buy that car in Montana (even though you have never been there) or open that credit card for which you will start getting billed?","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/index.php\/im-freezing-credit\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"I'm Freezing and Your Credit Should Be Too - Protect Your Identity - Financial Focus","og_description":"Did you know you can \"freeze\" your credit to help protect yourself, and that of your family, from having someone obtain your identity and allow them to buy that car in Montana (even though you have never been there) or open that credit card for which you will start getting billed?","og_url":"https:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/index.php\/im-freezing-credit\/","og_site_name":"Financial Focus","article_publisher":"http:\/\/financialfocus","article_published_time":"2014-02-11T15:58:41+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-08-24T10:38:45+00:00","author":"Parkey Thompson","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Parkey Thompson","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/index.php\/im-freezing-credit\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/index.php\/im-freezing-credit\/"},"author":{"name":"Parkey Thompson","@id":"https:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/#\/schema\/person\/5dc1a9b7d2ae31d9322fcfdace3c93e4"},"headline":"I&#8217;m Freezing and Your Credit Should Be Too &#8211; Protect Your Identity","datePublished":"2014-02-11T15:58:41+00:00","dateModified":"2025-08-24T10:38:45+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/index.php\/im-freezing-credit\/"},"wordCount":372,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/#organization"},"articleSection":["Debt","Encouragement","Identity Theft","Personal","Planning"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/index.php\/im-freezing-credit\/","url":"https:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/index.php\/im-freezing-credit\/","name":"I'm Freezing and Your Credit Should Be Too - Protect Your Identity - Financial Focus","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/#website"},"datePublished":"2014-02-11T15:58:41+00:00","dateModified":"2025-08-24T10:38:45+00:00","description":"Did you know you can \"freeze\" your credit to help protect yourself, and that of your family, from having someone obtain your identity and allow them to buy that car in Montana (even though you have never been there) or open that credit card for which you will start getting billed?","inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/index.php\/im-freezing-credit\/"]}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/","name":"Financial Focus","description":"Personal Financial Coaching","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/#organization","name":"Financial Focus","url":"https:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/financial-focus-logo.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/financial-focus-logo.jpg","width":"400","height":"72","caption":"Financial Focus"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/financialfocus","https:\/\/x.com\/financialfocus1"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/#\/schema\/person\/5dc1a9b7d2ae31d9322fcfdace3c93e4","name":"Parkey Thompson","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/07cc95deb83f1e12d0c9eaf6bbfea31df95bc8daaf889b877ffb444c3d9311bb?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/07cc95deb83f1e12d0c9eaf6bbfea31df95bc8daaf889b877ffb444c3d9311bb?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/07cc95deb83f1e12d0c9eaf6bbfea31df95bc8daaf889b877ffb444c3d9311bb?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Parkey Thompson"},"description":"After many years of coaching others in the workplace, Parkey Thompson decided to follow his passions and focus on providing personal financial coaching, strategic planning and direction setting to individuals, families, religious organizations and small businesses by starting Financial Focus. Throughout his personal and professional life, Parkey has experienced first-hand and overcome many of the challenges he now helps others navigate on a daily basis. For over twenty years, Parkey held various leadership positions across multiple companies, including companies such as General Electric and IBM. In 2005, he thoughtfully decided to use his leadership skills to help others significantly improve their own personal finance, career, life, and business financial situations. Parkey is a certified financial coach, compassionately helping his clients navigate through challenging financial and life decisions on a daily basis . He is a Sunday School teacher, volunteer and has served on several boards \/ committees. He enjoys passionately motivating and helping families, individuals, businesses, and churches envision and achieve their dreams. In addition to Financial Focus, Parkey is a contributing financial writer to local magazines and newsletters, a former frequent guest on \u201cMornings\u201d with Lorri Allen and Larry Estepa on the FamilyNet TV and radio network, and a radio contributor to Family Life Radio's Intentional Living program. More than anything, Parkey and his family live what he teaches others. Parkey and his family are debt free and live without credit cards and on a plan! Parkey and his wife, Lisa, live in Cumming, Georgia and are newly empty nesters. They three have three children \u2013 Kayla (and husband Micah), Morgan (and husband Ryan) and Micah.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/","https:\/\/x.com\/financialfocus1"],"url":"https:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/index.php\/author\/parkey-thompson\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1654","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1654"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1654\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2312,"href":"https:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1654\/revisions\/2312"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myfinancialfocus.net\/mainsite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}