If your data was breached at Equifax, welcome to the club! After the breach, you’ve likely taken steps to freeze your credit at Equifax, or possibly at Experian and Transunion as well. To freeze or unfreeze it, you have to call in or visit the Equifax website, www.freeze.equifax.com, and enter your pin.
I just recently became all too familiar with this as I began recently seeing people applying for credit cards in my name all over the country.
While I am sitting here typing this, something just clicked in my head. The breach wasn’t announced for months after it happened, and that is about when my identity theft began. I wonder if anyone else’s identity was compromised at the same time. I documented the applications used, cards applied for and also the cities and states where my identity was stolen. If this happened to you in June 2017, please see my article about my identity theft and see if we share anything in common. This could get interesting.
Equifax Website Not Working
No, it is not just you. The Equifax website, which worked fine months ago, is not working. You enter all of your info just to see an unhelpful message which reads: “We are currently unable to service your request. Please try again later.”
On Friday, September 15, 2017, the Equifax website was slow and unreachable. It would time out before it could complete my request to temporarily unfreeze my credit. I picked up the phone to unfreeze my credit, and the number returned a busy signal.
Maybe it was just me, but I suspect that tens of thousands of other people also experienced the same thing (actually, I’m just Googling around and I now see a report on CNN where they couldn’t get through either).
I’m a bit of a night owl, so on September 18, 2017, I jumped onto the Equifax site at 2AM. I thought I had the system beat: I’d unfreeze my credit while most normal people were asleep. It was nice and smooth and ran fast. But I went through the process again of typing in all of my information, just to get this darn message AGAIN:
The Equifax website to freeze and unfreeze your credit is not working.
Note: To see if you’re affected, you’re supposed to go to: www.equifaxsecurity2017.com/potential-impact/ – but that website is broken too!!
This Equifax website doesn’t work either!
Note: Checking could be a bad idea. Here’s why.
Update September 18, 2017: Today I was able to get a bit further but am still unable to unfreeze my credit report:
Again, the Equifax website is not working. Today’s error is “System Currently Unavailable – Error 500”.
Update: Sept 22, 2017. I tried once again my daily routine to lift my freeze. Today after entering my SSN and other information I was sent to this page below. I have no idea why Equifax would take all of my data online just to tell me I can’t do what I need to do online, but that’s what they did. At this point I have tried for 6 days to lift my freeze by repeatedly visiting the site, calling and tweeting them. There is no doubt in my mind that if this does not work I will not be able to write them via a paper letter.
Screenshot:
Equifax is also acting dumb on Twitter:
As mentioned above, Equifax is not helping people on Twitter. Whoever is running the @AskEquifax account is a very stupid person. I just randomly went there and the first thing I see is this:
Customer: I can’t use your website because it is down.
Equifax: Ok, visit our website.
You can’t make this stuff up.
Additionally, Equifax’s Twitter accounts have been tricked into sending people to websites that are not Equifax websites.
Can I Unfreeze my Equifax Credit Report over the phone?
To temporarily lift the freeze on your credit, call 1-800-685-1111, Option #3. Well, that’s what I tried to do, but the message said: Sorry, we are unable to do this at this time, please visit www.freeze.equifax.com.
So, the number is busy during business hours, and doesn’t work at night. I guess people will just stop buying houses and cars?
Has the Equifax website been not working for you?
At this point, I am unable to unfreeze my credit. That sucks, but at least people aren’t stealing my identity. I do have a 7yr free freeze. But shouldn’t there always be a freeze? I never asked Equifax to monitor my credit, and they obviously can’t run a simple website or answer a telephone, let alone keep my information secure.
As someone who spent many years in IT, I am not surprised by the data breach. As someone who works on websites for a living, I can’t believe their sites are not working. As a business owner, I’m shocked nobody can answer the phone. As someone who can’t unlock their credit, I am not happy. There are obviously some very, very big problems at Experian across the board.
If the Equifax website is down for you too, please tell us about it in the comments below.
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My social security numbers have been exposed and I can’t freeze my credit. Now what?
No clue! Tweet @Equifax?
You won’t believe this, but I did tweet them and they had me send them a DM. I got into the direct message and they told me to go to their website. They are so stupid.
I can’t check at all to see if my data is breached!
It seems like all of the Equifax websites are not working. I was listening to Clark Howard earlier, and he said to just go ahead and get ree monitoring from Credit Karma, then put the freeze in place regardless. Equifax seems to be really goofed up, so I think this is sound advice. I’d even bet everyone’s data is breached.
9/21/2017 – Still can not unfreeze credit report. Today I was able to enter my 10 Digit PIN, but after a few minutes I received: Error 500.
9/21/2017: Now Fake websites are popping up to steal more user’s information because the Equifax websites are down and named so poorly. This is amazing…
Mahalo nui loa, good info. I’m still trying to get a FREE credit freeze from Equifax but can’t as I keep getting the same messages you posted & I’m assuming so is everyone else. So, what’s the solution? Should we go to the other credit companies & apply for a credit freeze from them & pay for it? Once again there’s mass victimization on an incredible scale.
Hi Mapuana, I have no idea. I tweeted them today and got no response. As of now I can not get through to them via their website, phone number or social media.
I get the same message!!! WTF???? Why aren’t they fixing the mess they created???
I’m unable to see if I’m impacted or to enroll in the free credit monitoring/protection plan. Each time I click on either of those two links I get the following notification:
Service temporarily unavailable
The service you’re requesting is temporarily unavailable. We apologize for any inconvenience. We’ll be back up and running as soon as possible.
Thank you for your patience.
Yup, I have been having the same issues than you, I’ve been trying every day. Also can’t enroll in the free year of identity theft monitoring, no matter how often I click on the link in their email. Ridiculous
I’ve been trying every other day since Sept 30th to Oct 9th (today) to get their so-called ‘free’ “enroll to protect and monitor credit – free” for people who have been impacted by the hack, but every single time I check and try to enroll for free, I get a “Service temporarily unavailable” page.
I’m guessing the “Service temporarily unavailable” page is going to be kept up until the Jan 1 deadline passes…
Update October 12, 2017: Now the equifax site is sending people to a site that installs viruses and malware on your computer!
https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2017/10/equifax-website-hacked-again-this-time-to-redirect-to-fake-flash-update/
have tried several times in November to freeze my credit at Equifax. Same problem as all who complained. Unable to get through the process. I figure since there is a deadline to do the “freeze” without paying Equifax is waiting for the end of the free period to charge people to do the “freeze-unfreeze”. Outrageous!
Who is monitoring big business? Who is helping/protecting the consumer?
12/3/2017 EQUIFAX SUCKS CAN’S ADD FREEZE ONLINE OR BY AUTOMATED PHONE BOTH SAY TEMPORARILY UNAVAILABLE HAVE TRIED SEVERAL TIMES ONLINE YOU OUT ALL THE SECURE INFORMATION THAT COULD BE HACKED BEFORE FINDING OUT IT WON’T ACCEPT. BY PHONE ONLY STATE IS SAID BEFORE BEING TOLD TEMPORARILY UNAVAILABLE. DON’T REALLY WON’T TO CALL LIVE NUMBER AND TALK TO SOME HOOKEY IN INDIA. THESE GUYS ARE REAL MAROONS
Early April (4-7) 2018, EQ freeze site unresponsive.
Experian and Transunion were easy. Exquifax is TERRIBLE and should be allowed to do business. They are the only one that is difficult to freeze credit. Their site is unresponsive and phone numbers send you in circles the way their Twitter account does. They need to be reported.
Still giving same messages about unavailability… It’s been nearly a year!
6/30/2018 – Equifax website STILL doesn’t work. I need to unfreeze the security hold I put on my credit after THE EQUIFAX BREACH so I can get a car loan, and A YEAR LATER THE EQUIFAX WEBSITE STILL DOESN’T WORK.
W.T.F!
Next step, calling my Congressional rep for whatever good that might do. Equifax should not be in existence. They’re duplicative and incompetent.
7/7/2018 Equifax website STILL doesn’t work.
same here, I need to get a bloody apartment! This should be criminal!
Hey all,
I don’t usually comment on message boards but I thought you might find this useful. I was having issues with the Equifax website myself and tried something different. Equifax now has something called Lock&Alert. I downloaded the Equifax Lock&Alert app on my smartphone and signed up, which gave me access back to my account. I entered my pin number but the app was undergoing maintenance (supposedly). So instead, I went to Lock&Alert online through a browser, logged in with my new sign-in info and was able to lift the security freeze I had on my account with my 10-digit pin. Give this a shot. I hope it works for everyone else too. I’m not entirely sure I’ll keep the app on my phone, but it at least allowed me to get access back to my account without timing me out or giving me errors like the website.
Thank you very much man your solution worked perfectly.
Not a man, actually, but glad it worked for you!
I ran into this site today while browsing about Equifax sites not working. While I’m just trying to access my Dispute Resolution, it doesn’t really matter. All of their sites have largely been out of commission for probably the past decade. While I have had some success in recent times, I also run into the same blocks that everyone else has.
If anyone has any recommendations for accessing dispute information, I would kindly appreciate that as well.
Oh – and I did try the Lock site with success only for locking and unlocking, which will be great if I need that in the future.
It’s not working for me today!
Equifax website is still not working!
Yup… “We are currently unable to process your request.” Both online and telephone… and don’t get me started about their ridiculous “customer service.” I would rather be consulted by random people on the street than these good for nothing “representatives.”
2 years of hiding in the shadows… this company is denying your right to stop selling your information to anyone (including identity thieves).
How is this legal?! There needs to be another class action law suit against them for obfuscating/ignoring their duties.
Any updated on the Lock&Alert method for initiating/lifting a credit freeze?
I’ve been trying to get my free credit reports. Between January 24, 2010 and February 23, 2020, I have always received the same response after creating an account.
“We are temporarily unable to connect to our services”
Maybe this is just an easy way to get around what they’ve been legally obligated to do? Whatever the reason, they’re out of control. No wonder they got hacked!
I’m trying to freeze my account 5/20/20 and like others have been unable to get the website to respond to complete the process. I’ve tried many times across several hours and different browsers. Pretty sad for a company with this sort of role in our finances.
I too have tried over many years to open a MyEquifax account and always get the “We are temporarily unable to connect to our services” message. On at least two separate occasions, I’ve spoken to Equifax customer service and supposed was supposed to get back to me after the rep “escalated” the problem. Surprise, surprise, nobody reached out to me. I recently filed a complaint with the CFPB about not being able to open a MyEquifax account. Equifax’s response, and I kid you not, was for me to log into my MyEquifax account. I kid you not. They told me to do the very thing I was complaining about not being able to do.
Update: It’s April 8th, 2021 and the absolute wreck of a company called Equifax is still as nonfunctioning as ever. All I’m trying to do is temporarily unfreeze my credit.
Which, of course, I had to put in place because these numb-nuts allowed my information to be stolen. App on phone working? Nope. How about their website? Nope. What if I contact them by phone and go through the automated system? Nope, Nope, Nope! Maybe this POS of a company will have humans that answer the phone? Nope, you sit in a que until they decide to disconnect the line. Companies like this should NEVER have authority over peoples’ information. In fact, Equifax should be sued into oblivion!
Here it is Sept 2023 and my recent experience is the same as everyone else from years past. Unbelievable that they are still in business and allowed to have our personal info