Online shopping has greatly increased due to its ease and convenience. However, It also opens the door to millions of online thieves looking to steal you credit information.  The question is remains.  How can you protect yourself?

The answer is through a credit freeze.

Evidence shows that 10 million Americans become victims to identity theft each year. That equates to 3.4% of all Americans annually.  The scary part is, once your identity is stolen it can take up to 500 hours of work to fix this very expensive problem.

Credit freezes have been available to certain states for the past couple of years, but now anyone can shut down access to their credit reports thanks to the credit bureaus. A credit freeze is exactly what it sounds like. It prevents new creditors from accessing your credit reports without your permission. The credit freeze will lock the data at the credit bureaus until an individual gives permission for the release of the data.

Identity theft is far more serious than credit card fraud but with this tool alone, it can help you prevent both of them.

To get started on a credit freeze there is a small catch. You have to pay each of the three credit bureaus $10 to freeze your credit. You will also have to pay to lift the freeze as well. For a couple that means you will have to pay 60$ to enact the freeze, and 60$ more if you want to apply for a loan and lift the freeze.

To avoid the hassle of having to call each credit bureau, there is a solution. You can get signed up with one of the top 3 Identity theft programs that we have reviewed. Each of them will take the hassles away from all the steps you would have to do, to protect your identity. To learn more about these programs click here for our review.