With the rash of revelations of computer breaches where credit card information is being stolen and then used by criminals to buy everything from clothes to houses, it is very important that you do all you can to protect yourself. One way that has been enacted by many states is the ability to freeze your credit. This method stops anyone, including yourself, from aquiring your credit information and thus prevents them from obtaining new credit, until you unfreeze your credit information.

As effective as this tool is the Consumer Data Industry Association, which represents the big three major credit reporting agencies would like to see these laws overturned or watered down. Why? you ask. It is because the credit reporting agencies make their money by collecting and then selling your credit information to banks, mortgage lenders and others who extend credit. If you have to protect yourself and try to use this extremely effective tactic you are cutting into their business.

Insisting that it has only consumers’ needs at heart, the industry has tried to overturn these laws that permit freezes in several states. And in Washington DC, it has pushed Congress to override the state laws by enacting a watered down federal law to supersede the state laws.

It seems that security breaches are now a common occurrence, and even if there is no way to eliminate them all, we have help in minimizing the damages. Don’t let the Consumer Data Industry Association take that away from us.