Credit report lock may hinder ability to sign up for MNsure

People who have locked their credit reports may have trouble creating an account on the state's new insurance marketplace, MNsure officials said today.

To buy a plan on MNsure, consumers must prove they are who they say they are. To verify an applicant's information, MNsure uses a federal service that relies on information provided by the credit bureau Experian.

People who block access to their credit reports to prevent identity theft also block MNsure.

That may explain why some people continue to have problems accessing the online insurance website, MNsure officials say.

To solve that problem, they recommend that MNsure users temporarily suspend credit monitoring services.

"We're encouraging folks to call the credit agency and lift the freeze for a time to create an account," MNsure spokesman John Reich said. "If people aren't comfortable with that, they certainly can create an account via the manual process we've laid out on our website."