What Does Freezing Your Credit Do and How It Works

Freezing your credit restricts access to your credit report at a bureau, which stops most lenders from opening new accounts in your name because they can’t run the credit check the application requires. It is the strongest self-service tool against new-account identity theft, it’s free at all three bureaus under federal law, and it has no effect on your credit score or the accounts you already have.¹

What the Freeze Actually Stops

A freeze locks your credit file at the bureau. When a lender tries to pull it as part of an application, the request is denied. Because virtually every new credit card, loan, or financing arrangement requires that credit check, denying it at the source kills the fraudulent application before it can be approved.²

That’s the whole mechanism. A thief with your Social Security number and date of birth can still try to open an account, but the lender’s system comes back with no accessible file, and the application is refused.

What a Freeze Does Not Do

Freezing your credit is narrower than people expect. It doesn’t affect your score. Placement, lifting, and removal have zero impact on your FICO or VantageScore, and your existing accounts continue reporting payment history normally behind the locked file.¹

It also doesn’t lock out everyone. Federal law carves out several exceptions:

Your existing creditors keep full access for account review, credit-line changes, and monitoring. If your account is sold or assigned, the new holder inherits that access. Debt collectors working on an existing obligation can also pull your report.³
Government agencies can access your file under a court order, warrant, or subpoena, and agencies investigating fraud, collecting delinquent taxes, or enforcing child support are exempt.³
Insurance companies underwriting a policy can pull through a freeze.
Employers running background checks and landlords running tenant screenings can too.
Companies verifying your identity for reasons other than granting credit, such as opening a bank account, have access.³
Credit monitoring services you’ve subscribed to still see your file, and you can always request your own report.

One more gap: prescreened credit offers. Those “pre-approved” cards keep arriving because lenders buy marketing lists generated separately from account-opening inquiries. The freeze doesn’t touch that pipeline. To stop them, opt out at optoutprescreen.com or by calling 1-888-567-8688, either for five years or permanently by mailed form.⁴

The Tradeoff: You Have to Lift It When You Want Credit

The same barrier that blocks thieves blocks you. Applying for a mortgage, auto loan, new credit card, or apartment rental means temporarily lifting the freeze first, along with anything else that involves a credit check. This is inconvenient rather than costly. Lifting is free, and bureaus must act on an online or phone request within one hour.³

How to Freeze Your Credit at All Three Bureaus

Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion each maintain their own file on you, and freezing one does nothing to the other two. A lender can pull from any of them, so a partial freeze leaves you exposed. Freeze all three.²

Each bureau accepts requests online, by phone, or by mail. Online is fastest.

Equifax: create a myEquifax account at equifax.com and place the freeze from your dashboard.⁵
Experian: use the security freeze portal at experian.com/freeze.⁶
TransUnion: use the freeze center at transunion.com/credit-freeze.⁷

A mail request needs your full legal name, Social Security number, date of birth, and addresses for the past two years. Experian additionally asks for a copy of a utility bill or bank statement showing your name and current address.⁶

During setup, some bureaus issue a PIN or ask you to create a password for future changes. Store it somewhere you’ll actually find later. TransUnion no longer requires its six-digit PIN and now verifies identity through personal information like name, date of birth, address, and Social Security number.⁷

Federal law gives the bureaus one business day to place a freeze requested online or by phone, and three business days for mail. You’ll get a confirmation with the effective date and, where applicable, your PIN. Check the name and address on it, and contact the bureau immediately if anything is wrong.³

Lifting the Freeze When You Need Credit Checked

Two options: a temporary lift or a permanent removal. A temporary lift opens your file for a set period and refreezes automatically when that window closes. A permanent removal ends the freeze entirely and is only worth choosing if you no longer want the protection.

Before lifting, ask the lender which bureau they plan to pull from. If they tell you, you can lift only that bureau and leave the other two frozen.²

Either action requires your PIN or password and identity verification through the bureau’s portal, phone line, or mail. Online and phone requests must be processed within one hour.³

Freeze, Fraud Alert, and Credit Lock Are Different Tools

People treat these as interchangeable, and they aren’t.

A fraud alert doesn’t block access to your file. It flags your report so lenders are supposed to verify your identity before approving new credit. An initial alert lasts one year and can be renewed, and you only need to contact one bureau because that bureau must notify the other two. If you’ve already been an identity theft victim and filed a report through IdentityTheft.gov or with the police, you can place an extended alert lasting seven years.²

A credit lock looks like a freeze but is governed by a private contract with the bureau instead of by federal law. The freeze’s rights, deadlines, and remedies come from statute. A lock’s terms come from the bureau’s terms of service, which often include arbitration clauses. Some locks are free; others are bundled with paid monitoring subscriptions. The advantage is speed, since many locks toggle through a mobile app without a PIN.

What It Costs

Nothing. Since September 21, 2018, federal law has required all three bureaus to place, temporarily lift, and permanently remove a freeze at no charge, for you and for anyone you’re legally authorized to protect. Every timing right described above, including the one-business-day placement window and the one-hour lift window, comes from 15 U.S.C. § 1681c-1. If a bureau charges you or misses those deadlines, you can file a complaint with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau at consumerfinance.gov or with the Federal Trade Commission.³

1
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. What Is a Credit Freeze or Security Freeze on My Credit Report
2
Consumer Advice (FTC). Credit Freezes and Fraud Alerts
3
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1681c-1 – Identity Theft Prevention; Fraud Alerts and Active Duty Alerts
4
Federal Trade Commission. What To Know About Prescreened Offers for Credit and Insurance
5
Equifax. Security Freeze – Freeze or Unfreeze Your Credit
6
Experian. Freeze or Unfreeze Your Credit File for Free
7
TransUnion. Freeze Support Center