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Cyber Risks · Krebs on Security

Survey: Americans Spent $1.4B on Credit Freeze Fees in Wake of Equifax Breach

Summary: A Fundera-commissioned Wakefield Research survey of about 1,000 U.S. adults found that almost 20 percent froze their credit file with one or more of the big three bureaus after the Equifax breach, at an estimated cost of $1.4 billion, or an average of $23 per person who froze. Freeze rates fell with age, from 32 percent of millennials to 16 percent of Generation Xers and 12 percent of baby boomers, while a provision in S. 2155, passed by the Senate on March 14, would require credit-reporting firms to allow freezes without a fee and is awaiting House action.

Key Takeaway: Consumers paid an estimated $1.4 billion to protect themselves after a breach at one of the three bureaus that hold their files, and the fix now rides on S. 2155, a broader bill that Consumers Union says would roll back post-2008 banking rules and lacks a provision to temporarily lift a freeze.

Read the original at Krebs on Security ↗

Topics
Data Breaches
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