Comments on: Online Financial Tools and Security

By: lurker carl

lurker carl — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 20:44:27 +0000

The biggest con to the Freeze is you have to unfreeze with each credit bureau before obtaining a new line of credit and refreeze when you’re finished. Think credit card application, home loan, refinancing, etc. The fee to freeze, unfreeze and refreeze with each bureau varies by state.

By: jackowick

jackowick — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 19:44:56 +0000

Trent uses Mint as an example in the opening and closing statements, but THIS article is about limiting exposure, not a review or criticism of Mint.

Not every article is written for every reader. Some people are reading this advice for the first time, whether they’re a 21 year old looking to start on a path of good habits, or a middle aged person looking to correct their mistakes, or someone of any age who has perhaps never been the primary financial decision maker in their life.

I recently switched celular phone companies and re-re-re-registering all this data for your name, address, emails, pins, etc, is really getting old. It just made me think how easy it is for something to be exposed by a bad day of digital maintenance by a company, so I read this article as yet another affirmation that “you need to always be in control of your data, as much as possible, to reduce risk.”

You can’t ever bring risk to zero, unless you’re a non-participant in a behavior.

With all that said, hey deReuiter, I never thought about “the Freeze”. Are there any cons to this if you are freezing yourself?

By: michael bash

michael bash — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 16:09:27 +0000

What IS my “personal information”? What items does it include? RSVP & thanks

By: deRuiter

deRuiter — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 09:14:59 +0000

Put a freeze on your credit information with the three companies: Experion, Trans Union and Equifax. It’s fast, it’s dirt cheap, and your identity can’t be stolen. The credit reporting agencies hate this because they are paid each time they divulge your information to anyone. Foil them for pennies! Freeze your credit. This also stops you from making frivolous applications for credit cards and loans you really don’t need because of the hassle of the pin, unfreezing credit for a certain time, etc. With the freeze in place, no one can open loans in your name, open credit cards, hijack your information, move your credit to a new address, nothing!

By: jim

jim — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 18:42:55 +0000

Basically Trents argument boils down to limiting your exposure. But I don’t think that avoiding the safer institutions is the best way to limit your exposure. Rationally you should avoid the less safe institutions first and foremost. Unfortunately our daily use of credit cards and banking information is not very secure. Every random clerk, waiter or other businessperson who touches our credit card could lift that number easier than any hacker could break into Mint. Every company we buy anything from with anything but cash is as exposed and probably more susceptible to a breach of security as Intuit. A hacker could probably crack most of our bank account passwords faster than the time it took you to read this paragraph.

THe biggest security breaches get headlines cause they are the biggest breaches. Little companies with security problems don’t get news cause they are little. THe individual people stealing financial info don’t get any headlines cause that happens day in an day out every day.

Its like trying to make yourself immune from any crime. You can take some sane precautions but you can’t eliminate all crimes.

By: Ryan

Ryan — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 16:55:10 +0000

This reads more like a criticism of having many different accounts than of Intuit or aggregation services.

I don’t think it’s even possible for anyone to be an “Alice” in today’s world. Even if she does all of her banking/credit cards/mortgage through say Bank of America, her information is also in the computers of TransUnion, Equifax, and Experian. Plus either Visa/Mastercard, depending on which card she has with BoA. Then there’s the information the US government makes available online like social security, selective service, tax refund status, etc.

Mint doesn’t even know the actual password to my ING account because ING lets you make a separate code that you can cancel at any time.

I think that if using Mint or a similar service finally lets you get rid of your debt/grow your net worth and get a better handle on your spending, then it’s worth it. Is ONE more company really that big of a deal when a dozen or so most likely already have your information?