Placing a credit freeze on minor children

Has anyone done this and if so, what companies have you used? Stealing the id's of minor children is a huge issue for people to use their names for credit/property.

I received something from Anthem, our health coverage, advertising that they can protect our child's identity because Anthem was breached in 2015. They require copies of SSN, b. certificate and proof of our address. My thing is if they were breached, why would I trust them with this information? Need additional companies to use for this. 

Sounds fishy.

I would suggest that you contact Transunion, Experian and Equifax directly to inquire on how to freeze their credit. I received the same letter from Anthem as well as they did in fact have a data breach.

When I've done this for myself after suspicious activity, there was no cost or external,provider needed. I simply put a lock/block ( maybe called something else?) on my credit. Meaning, nothing could be applied for or opened without my express verbal approval through a series of phone calls and verifications.

Hope this helps

http://www.clark.com/credit-freeze-for-child

@BG9 - very helpful. Funny that TransUnion doesn't offer the service minors in NJ. Also, the majority of states they allow for the freeze, the minor must be 16 or under. They only offer protection in some states for children 18 and under.

So weird. Credit isn't determined by state so why do states get to make rules on how it's handled?

I have to disagree with the original premise.

I have never heard of theft of a minor's ID for credit fraud etc. I am calling hogwash on whoever is pushing this "the sky is falling" concept and has the balls to ask for money to protect you from something that is a complete non-issue.

I've heard of a minor's ID theft but usually perpetrated by a family member. It's not uncommon.

kmk said:

I have to disagree with the original premise.

I have never heard of theft of a minor's ID for credit fraud etc. I am calling hogwash on whoever is pushing this "the sky is falling" concept and has the balls to ask for money to protect you from something that is a complete non-issue.

NY Times (2015) https://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/18/your-money/a-childs-vulnerability-to-identity-theft.html?_r=0

A limited amount of googling hasn't brought out actual statistics on how often this happens, though.

There wasn't a fee involved in the info sent from Anthem. I just didn't trust them because they got hacked and now want to protect my kids info?

kmk said:

I have to disagree with the original premise.

I have never heard of theft of a minor's ID for credit fraud etc. I am calling hogwash on whoever is pushing this "the sky is falling" concept and has the balls to ask for money to protect you from something that is a complete non-issue.

Regardless of the idea of credit protection, I think that I would tend to trust a company that had been burned, because they have probably fixed the problem. Companies that have not been burned will be, it is just a matter of when.

I love how they give short term monitoring as a result of a breach. WTF, if someone has my DOB and SS# they can use that info up until the SSA has been notified of my death. It doesn't expire short term like a credit card and isn't easily changed like a bank account number. So some insurance company loses my personal info, offers me a year or two of free monitoring, knowing full well that my info might be used in six month, or in six years. Basically, once your info has been a part of a breach you'd best be getting credit monitoring for the rest of your life, which unfortunately YOU will have to pay for.

the freeze is all the protection you need and it's free. Nothing can happen when you have a freeze. You have to renew it every few years.

Understood. The other issue I had with Anthem was that the hack occurred in 2015. When this occurred, Anthem notified us and said they'd be offering free monitoring - we didn't have to sign up - but was chintzy on the details of exactly what the monitoring entailed, if they'd be doing it solo or if they were incorporating the credit bureaus for help.

FilmCarp said:

Regardless of the idea of credit protection, I think that I would tend to trust a company that had been burned, because they have probably fixed the problem. Companies that have not been burned will be, it is just a matter of when.