To place a fraud alert on TransUnion, contact TransUnion once — online at service.transunion.com, by phone at 800-916-8800, or by mail — and it will flag your credit file and notify Equifax and Experian to do the same. The alert is free, and federal law requires the bureau you contact to forward it to the other two, so one request covers all three files.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1681c-1 – Identity Theft Prevention; Fraud Alerts and Active Duty Alerts Once it’s active, any creditor pulling your report for a new account has to take reasonable steps to verify you are the real applicant.
How to Place the Alert
TransUnion gives you three options.2TransUnion. Fraud Alerts – Place a Fraud Alert
- Online at service.transunion.com. Log in or create a free account and follow the prompts. This is the fastest route.
- By phone at 800-916-8800. An automated system walks you through it.
- By mail. The current fraud alert mailing address is listed on TransUnion’s Fraud Alert by Mail or Phone page at transunion.com/fraud-alerts.
What You’ll Need
TransUnion has to match you to your credit file, so have your full name (including middle initial and any prior names), your current and recent addresses, your full Social Security number, and your date of birth ready.3Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. 12 CFR 1022.123 – Appropriate Proof of Identity
You’ll also give a phone number where creditors can reach you. That number matters. It’s the number a lender is supposed to call before approving new credit in your name, so use one you actually answer.
What the Alert Does to New Credit Applications
A fraud alert isn’t a lock. Your credit report stays accessible, and existing accounts aren’t affected — keep using your current cards and loans normally. What changes is the process for anything new. A business pulling your report for a new application has to take reasonable steps to confirm the applicant is really you, which in practice usually means a call to the phone number on file.4Consumer Advice. Credit Freezes and Fraud Alerts
That applies whether the application is submitted online, in person, or over the phone. Expect a small delay in any legitimate approval. The delay is the point: it gives you a chance to catch an application you never made before the account opens.
Which Type of Alert Fits Your Situation
Federal law creates three fraud alerts, and the one you want depends on whether you suspect fraud, have confirmed it, or are on active duty.
- Initial fraud alert. Lasts one year. You only need a good-faith suspicion that you are or could become a victim, so no police report is required. This is the right choice for most people who learn their information was in a breach or who’ve lost a wallet.
- Extended fraud alert. Lasts seven years. To qualify, you submit an identity theft report — either a report filed at the FTC’s IdentityTheft.gov or a police report. It also removes your name from prescreened credit and insurance offer lists for five years.
- Active duty military alert. Lasts at least 12 months and is available to active duty service members. It removes you from prescreened offer lists for two years.
One thing worth flagging: only the extended alert and the active duty alert remove you from prescreened offer lists. A plain initial fraud alert does not.5Federal Trade Commission. What To Know About Prescreened Offers for Credit and Insurance
Free Credit Reports You’re Owed
Placing an alert triggers a right to free copies of your credit report. When TransUnion places an initial fraud alert, it must tell you about your right to a free file disclosure and provide it within three business days of your request.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1681c-1 – Identity Theft Prevention; Fraud Alerts and Active Duty Alerts
With an extended alert, you get two free file disclosures from each bureau over the following 12 months. Those are on top of the free annual report available through AnnualCreditReport.com. Pull the report soon after placing the alert. That’s how you catch fraudulent accounts that may already exist.
Renewing or Removing the Alert
An initial fraud alert expires automatically after one year. There is no automatic renewal, so if you still want the protection, place a new one before or after it lapses. The active duty alert follows the same one-year cycle. The extended alert runs for the full seven years without any renewal step.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1681c-1 – Identity Theft Prevention; Fraud Alerts and Active Duty Alerts
You can also remove the alert early. To keep a thief from doing this for you, TransUnion verifies your identity first, which typically means a written request with copies of a government-issued ID and proof of current address. Once TransUnion removes the alert, it notifies the other two bureaus, and the verification requirement on new applications goes away.
When a Freeze Is the Better Choice
A fraud alert asks creditors to verify you. A credit freeze stops them from seeing your report at all, which prevents a new account from being opened in the first place.4Consumer Advice. Credit Freezes and Fraud Alerts The trade-offs:
- Setup. One fraud alert covers all three bureaus. A freeze has to be placed at each bureau separately.6USAGov. How to Place or Lift a Security Freeze on Your Credit Report
- Applying for new credit. With an alert, you apply normally and may get a verification call. With a freeze, you have to lift it at the relevant bureau first. Federal law requires the bureau to lift a freeze within one hour of an online or phone request.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1681c-1 – Identity Theft Prevention; Fraud Alerts and Active Duty Alerts
- Cost. Both are free under federal law.
- Duration. An initial alert lasts one year and expires. A freeze stays until you remove it.
If you’ve confirmed identity theft and want the strongest block, a freeze is the tool. If you want quick, one-call coverage across all three bureaus while you sort things out, the fraud alert on TransUnion is the faster first step.