Security alert: Consider freezing your child’s credit

FORT MYERS, Fla. Not freezing your child’s credit could have devastating effects when they’re older.

“One gentleman that I worked with he was 24 years old, tried to get his first apartment and he was denied for bad credit,” said Carrie Kersike with the Identity Fraud Institute at Hodges University. “He said ‘well I never had credit this is the first time I’ve ever done anything a credit report.’ He met with me, brought his credit reports in and he’d been a victim since he was 2-years-old. He had no idea.”

A credit freeze prevents creditors from accessing a credit report, preventing them from opening an account.

Freezing credit with the three main credit bureaus costs $30.

Kersike said it’s good for people to freeze their credit as long as they have no new credit changes within the past two years.