Freezing your credit
Free. About ten minutes per bureau. Last updated 5 October 2026
A credit freeze is the one consumer protection that is free, takes an evening, works immediately, and is routinely done wrong in a way that leaves it useless.
Three bureaus, not one
A freeze only applies at the bureau where you placed it. Equifax, Experian and TransUnion are separate companies with separate files on you, and a lender will pull whichever one it prefers. Freeze two of three and the account gets opened through the third.
A fraud alert works the opposite way: you contact one bureau and it is required to tell the other two. People do the alert at one bureau, assume a freeze works the same way, and end up protected at a third of the places that matter. These are different tools with different rules, and that is the single most common mistake.
What a freeze does, exactly
- Nobody can open a new credit account in your name while it is in place — including you. That is the point: the thief cannot borrow against your name, because no one can.
- It is free to place and free to lift, at every bureau.
- It does not affect your credit score. This is the objection people raise and it is simply untrue.
- It lasts until you lift it. There is no expiry to remember.
- Anyone may place one, for any reason — you do not need to have been a victim of anything, and you do not need to wait for a breach notice.
Lifting it when you need credit
Applying for a loan, a card, an apartment, a job or insurance means someone needs to see your file. You lift the freeze temporarily and put it back afterwards.
The efficient version: ask the lender which bureau they pull, and lift that one only. Most will tell you. Lifting all three when one would do leaves the other two files open for no reason, for however long the application takes.
A freeze is not credit monitoring, and the difference costs money
Monitoring is a product, often a paid subscription, that notifies you after something appears on your report. A freeze prevents the account from being opened in the first place, and costs nothing.
Both have a place — monitoring catches the things a freeze does not cover, such as misuse of an account you already have — but they are often sold as though monitoring were the protection and the freeze an afterthought. It is the other way round. Do the free thing first.
Fraud alerts, and when each one applies
- Initial fraud alert. Lenders must verify your identity before granting credit in your name. Lasts one year, renewable, free. Contact one bureau; it must notify the other two. Placing one also entitles you to a free copy of your report from each of the three.
- Extended fraud alert. Lasts seven years, and also removes you from marketing lists for unsolicited credit and insurance offers for five. Available to people who have actually experienced identity theft and have completed an FTC identity theft report at IdentityTheft.gov or filed a police report.
An alert does not stop a business from seeing your report; it tells them to check with you first. A freeze stops the access itself. You can have both at once.
Where to do it
The government maintains the current contact details for all three bureaus in one place, which is the link to use rather than searching — searching for any of these names returns a page of paid lookalikes first.
Credit bureau contacts — IdentityTheft.gov
As published there: Equifax 800-685-1111, Experian 888-397-3742, TransUnion 888-909-8872.
While you are there
Children can be frozen too, and a child's file is the one nobody checks for fifteen years. If you have had a breach notice naming a dependent, that is the thing to do with it.
Where to read the primary source
Credit freezes and fraud alerts — Federal Trade Commission. Everything above comes from there; nothing on this page is our interpretation of what the rules ought to be.
What this page is not
It is not legal or financial advice, and a freeze is not a cure for identity theft that has already happened — for that, the report at IdentityTheft.gov is the document everything else hangs off. This page covers one free step that takes an evening and makes the next attempt fail.