A credit freeze is the rare piece of financial advice that costs nothing, takes about fifteen minutes, and actually works. It locks your credit reports so no one can open new accounts in your name, a thief holding your stolen information included. For most people, most of the time, it should simply be on.
What a freeze does, and does not, do
A freeze stops new creditors from pulling your report, which is the step almost every new-account fraud depends on. It does not touch your existing accounts, your credit score, or your ability to use the cards and loans you already have. It is also not a fraud alert or credit monitoring. Those tell you after something has happened. A freeze tries to keep it from happening at all.
How to do it
- Freeze at all three major bureaus separately: Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. A freeze at one does nothing for the others, so it is all three or it is not really done.
- By law the freeze and the unfreeze are free, at every bureau, every time. Anyone charging you for it is selling something you can do yourself for nothing.
- You will set up a PIN or login at each bureau. Save those somewhere you will actually find them again, because you need them to lift the freeze.
- Think about freezing your children's credit too. A child's unused credit file is a quiet favorite of identity thieves, precisely because no one is watching it.
The small catch
The only real downside is the friction it adds for you. When you apply for a new card or loan, and sometimes a phone or an apartment, you have to lift the freeze at the relevant bureau and then put it back. It takes a few minutes and is mildly annoying. That is a fair price for closing the door most identity theft walks through.
General guidance, not legal or financial advice. The official bureaus and the FTC's identity-theft resources are the authoritative sources. Questions go through our contact page.