Lawmakers Seek to Ban Credit Freeze Fee
January 10th, 2018 by Jake StofanFlorida has the second highest rate of identity theft in the nation per-capita. Even with such frequent instances, credit report agencies often charge victims to freeze their accounts once fraud is detected.
Lawmakers along with the state’s Chief Financial Officer and Commissioner of Agriculture are supporting Legislation that would make it illegal to charge a victim of identity theft to freeze their account. Current law allows for agents to charge up to $10 to freeze an account. CFO Jimmy Patronis says the new bill will help victims recover from identity theft.
“It can happen to anyone. It happened to me recently. I had a credit card breach, I jumped through the hurdles of calling the credit card companies, letting them know that I was getting spending alerts. The vulnerability that affects not just people like myself, but especially our seniors, we’ve got to make it easier for them to protect their credit,” said Patronis.
The bill was approved by it’s first committee Wednesday morning.
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