Managing credit freeze to avoid identity theft gets easier

— -- You've got a lot on your mind. It costs $80 to fill up your gas tank, you haven't saved anything for retirement, and your water heater is making strange burbling noises. The last thing you need to worry about is whether some crook in Belarus has hijacked your good credit.

That's not a farfetched concern. Last month, the U.S. Department of Justice charged 11 people in five countries in connection with the cybertheft of millions of credit and debit card numbers. The account numbers belonged to customers of nine major U.S. retailers, including Barnes and Noble, BJ's Wholesale Club and T.J. Maxx. The numbers were stored on computer servers in the USA and Eastern Europe and sold through the Internet to other criminals, the charges allege.

The good news? The most potent weapon against identity theft is becoming easier to use. Cheaper, too.

That weapon is the credit freeze, also known as a security freeze. When you place a freeze on your credit reports, credit card issuers, lenders and others can't check your credit history. Without that information, they won't issue credit. And that also means criminals can't set up new accounts in your name.

That's increasingly important, because new-account fraud is one of the most pernicious forms of identity theft. If someone uses your credit card number to buy, say, designer shoes online, you can dispute the charges when you receive your credit card bill. In new-account fraud, though, criminals use stolen information to open accounts in your name. Sometimes, they arrange for the bills to go to a different address. You might not realize you've been victimized until the unpaid bills have trashed your credit record.

A credit freeze will protect you from new-account fraud, but it has a downside: If you want to apply for a mortgage, car loan or credit card, you'll need to contact all three of the main credit bureaus — TransUnion, Experian and Equifax — and unfreeze your credit reports. Most states give the credit bureaus three business days to temporarily lift or remove the freeze, a problem if you're in a hurry to get a loan.