Many years ago, my mother suggested I lock my credit. This was an exciting idea, and she was way ahead of her time by doing this. If you lock your credit, no one can open a credit card in your name. You can't get a credit card for yourself though. Or buy a car. Or get a mortgage for a home. But neither can anyone else.
The key here is that you can unlock your credit any time you need to. You're the one that locked it. So, let's say you're going to buy a car and you're filling out the information for the car loan. As long as you know which credit bureau they're going to run a credit check on, you can go and unlock it. Once complete, you can lock your credit back.
This used to be complicated at the time my mother initially did it because it was way before we had the level of online services we have now. I think my mother had to call in, go through some phone rigamarole and then the unlock could be put in place for seven days or something. Options were limited.
Today, it's all online, and it's all easy. I haven't had a reason to unlock my credit for years. Today I went to get a new case for my phone at Apple.com, and I started reading about the Apple Card. If you know me, you know I'm an advocate for, passionate even, about using Apple Pay. I read about the card, compared features it offered and decided there were better features and more benefits than the credit card I'd associated with Apple Pay.
With some things, I'm all about change. Other things, I don't budge. With Apple Pay I had assigned an existing credit card as the underlying payment mechanism. That card was one I applied for and got back in the 1990s. The bank that card has been with had changed many times over the years due to mergers and acquisitions. But it's the same "card" in that it says on the front "member since 1993."
Aside from business credit cards, of which I've had many through the different companies I've worked for, that was the last time I applied for a credit card. Today, things are different. I applied for the card right there on my phone. Apple knew who I was and had the majority of my information. I entered in the additional few bits and waited for the application to fail because my credit was locked.
I wasn't disappointed. I got a message telling me, "You have your credit locked. We verify with TransUnion, please unlock your credit and try again." That's what I was looking for—which credit bureau. I didn't want to unlock all three. I went over to TransUnion, unlocked my credit, went back to Apple, said try again and five minutes later went back to the TransUnion page, and relocked my credit.
Disco! I had a new credit card. Or, well, whatever Apple is calling the Apple Card. You know Apple; they have to be "innovative" and different. All I needed to do now was let my watch, phone, iPad, and Mac know the Apple Card was my default for Apple Pay.
Sort of a fun, credit card, credit report, cool new technology, thanks for making sure my credit was safe all those years back Mom, kind of day.
The Big Boy Update: My son left at 7:30 to go to Morgan's lake house. Her father, Dave, went with them. I don't know what they did, but they're only getting in now. When I messaged Morgan and asked if he would be hungry when they got home she said he told her, "he had a snack right before we left but has informed me that his stomach is a black hole and he will need probably two dinners."
The Tiny Girl Chronicles: My daughter came inside from school today sad. Her driver, Mrs. Grimes, is being reassigned on Monday. We love Mrs. Grimes. She said the new route they want to put her on has her arriving at dispatch at 4:30AM and getting home at 7:30PM. She has three children and can't do that schedule. She's going to have to find another job. I hope they reconsider, for her and her family if nothing else.
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