Neil Hughes
Some customers scrambling to preorder the hotly anticipated iPhone X early Friday morning hit an unexpected roadblock: Credit freezes put in place after the Equifax data breach held up authorization of payment plan loans.
After preorders began Friday at 12:01 a.m. Pacific, 3:01 a.m. Eastern, some who had initiated a credit freeze forgot to unfreeze it to authorize plans like Apple's iPhone Upgrade Program.
Readers reached out to AppleInsider after their purchase process was delayed, and others took to Twitter to express frustration that they had missed out on the iPhone X preorder window because their self-imposed credit freeze.
Thx for nothing @CitizensOne for using @Equifax to check my credit. No iPhone X for me. @Equifax breach...the gift that keeps on giving.
— Kevin Clark (@KC_Clarky) October 27, 2017
As noted by AppleInsider in September, the iPhone Upgrade Program relies on Citizens Bank, which performs at least some credit checks with Equifax, which is one of the three major credit reporting bureaus in the U.S. Social Security numbers and other personally identifiable information of up to 143 million U.S. consumers were exposed in an unprecedented hack of Equifax earlier this year, prompting a wave of voluntary credit freezes.
The problem is not unique to Apple, of course, nor is it unique to the iPhone X. Because Apple's credit partner Citizens Bank is used for other purchases, it has also affected iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus orders since they went on sale in September.
Carrier installment plans were also said to have been affected by credit freezes, as users on Twitter said programs like AT&T Next were held up in the preorder process.
In the wake of the hack, many consumers took to freezing their credit not only at Equifax, but also with Experian and TransUnion. Those who did so would have been stopped
Thankfully, for those who plan ahead for such purchases, the process of temporarily thawing credit with the three bureaus is fairly easy with a secure PIN number. In the future, consumers looking to make any loan-related purchase or application should remember to thaw their credit prior.
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Wesley Hilliard
AppleInsider Staff
Andrew Orr
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William Gallagher
21 Comments
1) Kevin choose to freeze his credit and then didn't think to unfreeze his credit when creating a new contract for iUP but doesn't blame himself? I'm in the iUP program yet I'm not getting a new iPhone this year and I still called to see what bureau(s) they use.
2) This sounds like he only froze his credit with Equifax, and not the other bureaus. I can't even accept that possibility because it makes no sense since your name, SSN, birthday, addresses, and other information can be used to create new loans from any bureau, so he's either doubly stupid for only freezing it for one or stupid for not calling Citizen's One to see which bureaus they use or simply doing a temp unfreeze of all the bureaus prior to ordering.
The gist of this article seems incorrect to me.
A credit freeze only affects businesses where you have never obtained a loan. Any business where you have an existing loan has the right to check your credit.
For the upgrade program, this was covered by people asking questions and a write up I spotted someplace.
And it turned out to be accurate for me. No issues obtaining new phone for myself and my wife, with a freeze in place at Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. Nor was it necessary to lift the freeze.
Either the person was enrolling in the upgrade program for the first time, or something else was wrong. As anyone with an existing loan with Citizens One should have had no issue due to freezes in place with the three credit bureaus.
Screw credit. Pay with cash.
Too bad. I made sure my card transaction limit was high enough (I got it increased the day before) so I wouldn’t face any roadblocks when ordering. Same thing with credit agencies.