What to Know Before Freezing Your Credit

What to Know Before You Freeze Your Credit

Before you freeze your credit, make sure you know what a credit freeze is, how it works and the advantages and potential drawbacks.

1. What a Credit Freeze Is

A credit freeze is formally known as a security freeze and it's a tool you can use to limit access to your credit reports. When you freeze your credit, the credit bureaus are only allowed to share your credit reports with certain companies and under certain circumstances.

When you apply for a new credit card, the card issuer will often request a copy of your credit report. However, if you've frozen your credit, the credit bureau won't be allowed to share your credit report with the card issuer for it to make lending decisions.

The lack of access could lead the issuer to decline your application. This isn't ideal if you were hoping to get approved. But it also means that someone who steals your personal information could have trouble taking out loans or credit cards in your name, protecting you from fraud.

2. Credit Freezes Don't Block All Access to Your Credit Reports

Freezing your credit only limits access to your credit reports—it doesn't block it completely. The credit bureaus can still share your credit reports when they're requested for non-lending purposes, such as when:

• Creditors check their customers' credit to manage their account
• An employer, insurance company or landlord wants to check someone's credit
• Creditors create prescreened lists of consumers to send offers of credit. If you prefer not to receive these offers, you can opt out at OptOutPrescreen.com.
• Government agents request a person's credit report to comply with a court order or warrant
• Debt collectors use credit reports to help find a consumer's current contact information
• Companies use the personal information in a credit report to help verify a consumer's identity

You'll also still be able to check and monitor your own credit if your report is frozen, including with free services like the ones Experian offers, such as free credit monitoring.

3. How to Freeze Your Credit

You can request a credit freeze online, by phone or by mail—the easiest option tends to be online. There are a few things to know:

• Freezing your credit is free.
• You have to submit separate requests with each of the credit bureaus—Experian, TransUnion and Equifax.
• The request is often completed within a few seconds (or a few days if you mail the request).
• Your report will stay frozen until you unfreeze, or thaw, it.

To freeze your Experian credit report, you can log in or create an account and manage your credit file from Experian's Security Freeze Center.

4. How to Check if Your Credit Reports Are Frozen

You'll want to unfreeze your credit reports before applying for a new credit card or loan to avoid potential delays.

If you can't remember whether you froze your credit reports or not, you might be able to check by logging in to your accounts at each of the credit bureaus. Or, you could try calling and asking about your report's status.

Alternatively, you could request a free copy of your credit reports from AnnualCreditReport.com and may see a statement on your reports indicating that they are frozen.

5. How to Unfreeze Your Credit Reports

The same accounts you use to freeze and check the status of your reports also allow you to unfreeze the reports. There are two options when unfreezing your report:

• Permanently unfreeze: The report will stay thawed until you request a new freeze.
• Temporarily unfreeze: You can choose this when you want the report to be unfrozen and refrozen. For example, you are applying for a personal loan and unfreeze your report long enough for the personal loan company to check your credit, then have the freeze automatically return.

Generally, it only takes a few minutes to thaw your reports if you make the request online or by phone. A temporary thaw may be a simpler way to manage your credit because you can schedule the thaws for when you plan to apply for a new account and then have your reports automatically refrozen.

6. There Are Alternatives to Credit Freezes

A credit freeze may be one of the best, free ways to help protect you from identity thieves opening new accounts in your name. But there are other options as well:

• Credit lock: A credit lock is similar to a credit freeze, but it's often offered as a feature in a paid subscription program from a credit bureau. The subscriptions may also come with credit and identity monitoring features, and it might be slightly easier to toggle credit locks on and off than manage credit freezes.
• Fraud alert: If you suspect you're the victim of identity theft, you have the right to request that a credit bureau add a fraud alert to your credit report. The alert tells creditors that your identity may be compromised and that they should take extra steps to verify your identity before opening a new account. Unlike credit freezes, you only need to request a fraud alert from one bureau and the bureau will relay your request to the other two.

If you plan on applying for new accounts soon and you're worried that your identity is compromised, a fraud alert might be sufficient. Otherwise, a credit freeze can offer more security, but it comes with the downside of an extra step each time you want to apply for credit. Credit locks aren't free, but they're often one of many features you receive with a subscription.

With a paid Experian membership, for example, you'll also receive notifications when someone attempts to apply for credit while your Experian credit report is locked.

Learn more >> Fraud Alert vs. Credit Freeze: What's the Difference?

7. You Can Freeze Other Types of Reports Too

Similar to how you can freeze your consumer credit reports, you may have the right to freeze other types of consumer reports. Two examples are:

• National Consumer Telecom and Utilities Exchange (NCTUE) reports: The NCTUE collects information from home security, utility, pay TV and telecom companies to create consumer reports. These companies may also request an NCTUE report when opening a new account to determine whether consumers have unpaid balances and how much to request for a security deposit. Freezing your NCTUE report could help keep someone from opening one of these accounts in your name.
• ChexSystems reports: ChexSystems creates reports with information related to checking and savings accounts, such as whether someone bounced checks or overdrew their account. Freezing your ChexSystems report could help stop someone from opening an account at a bank or credit union using your information.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau maintains a list of consumer reporting companies with notes on whether the companies will freeze your reports.

8. You Can Also Freeze Your Child's Credit

Sadly, many children are targets of identity theft and credit fraud precisely because people might not think to check a minor's credit report.

However, you can ask each of the credit bureaus to freeze your child's credit reports to help protect them. If your child doesn't have a credit report, the bureau can create and then freeze the report as a preventive measure.

Experian's Child Identity Theft Protection center has more information on how you can check if your child has an Experian credit report and add a fraud alert to the report or freeze it.

How to Freeze Your Credit for Free

Freezing and unfreezing your consumer credit reports is always free. Here are several ways to do it at each bureau. If you mail the request, you may need to print and complete specific forms or include copies of identifying documents with your request.

Frequently Asked Questions

• How Long Does a Credit Freeze Last?

  There's no time limit on credit freezes. Once you freeze your credit reports, they can remain frozen until you unfreeze them. However, when you request a thaw, you can either request a permanent or temporary thaw. With a temporary thaw, your reports will be automatically refrozen on the day you choose.

• Is There a Downside to Freezing Your Credit?

  The main downside to freezing your credit is that you may have trouble qualifying for a new credit card or loan if you don't unfreeze your reports before applying. However, as long as you remember to unfreeze them later, freezing your credit reports can be a simple and free way to help protect yourself from credit fraud.

• Can You Open a Credit Card if Your Credit Is Frozen?

  When you apply for a credit card and your credit reports are frozen, the card issuer won't be able to check your reports. Some card issuers might approve credit card applications without a credit check. But generally, the issuer will automatically decline your application or let you know that your application is pending.

  If you've only frozen one or two of your reports, there's a chance the issuer could still check your credit and approve your application. If the application is pending, you might be able to unfreeze your reports, call the issuer and ask it to review the application again.

• Does a Credit Freeze Affect Your Credit Score?

  Credit freezes don't affect your credit scores. They limit access to your credit reports, which could keep creditors from seeing your credit scores. However, information can still be added and removed from your credit reports, and you can still check your credit reports and scores. Your current creditors may also be able to continue accessing your credit reports and scores.

Monitor Your Credit for Unexpected Changes

Whether or not you freeze your credit reports, monitoring your credit reports can also be important. Unexpected activity or accounts could indicate that someone has taken over your account or opened a new account in your name. If you want to monitor your Experian credit report, a free Experian account includes access to your credit report with monthly updates, real-time alerts for important changes and FICO^® Score^☉ tracking.