How to Freeze Your Credit

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• A credit score freeze, additionally referred to as a safety freeze, is a free technique to cease exercise in your credit score report when you suspect your id was stolen.
• In contrast to an id theft report, it’s a must to contact every of the three main credit score bureaus — Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion — individually to freeze your credit score.
• Along with credit score freezes, you can even place a fraud alert in your credit score or subscribe to a credit score monitoring service.

Your credit score historical past and credit score rating dictate most of the main milestones in your life, from renting an house to purchasing a home. Sadly, dangerous actors know this too, which is why your id and credit score are frequent targets for theft. 

Fortuitously, you could have a couple of instruments in your credit score toolbox you possibly can deploy in opposition to would-be id thieves. Considered one of these instruments is a credit score freeze, which halts any new credit-related exercise. 

What’s a credit score freeze?

A credit score freeze prevents the three main credit score bureaus — Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion — from sharing your credit score report with any individual or lender. This can cease potential lenders from your credit score file however may even stop anybody from fraudulently taking out a mortgage or opening a line of credit score in your identify. 

“In case you’ve been the sufferer of a knowledge breach or id theft, a credit score freeze is an efficient technique to mitigate the chance of additional injury to your funds and id,” says Greg Mahnken, a former credit score trade analyst with Credit score Card Insider. “If an id thief or unauthorized individual tries to use for credit score in your identify, they won’t be able to entry your credit score studies and the applying will probably be denied.”

Also referred to as a safety freeze, credit score freezes had been made utterly free in 2018 by the Financial Development, Regulatory Aid, and Shopper Safety Act. It’s also free to unfreeze your credit score if you wish to use it for something similar to a brand new bank card or when you’re shopping for a house.

“Freezing your credit score is an efficient, cost-free technique to make it more durable for thieves to open up bank cards or different monetary accounts in your identify,” says Dana Marineau, the previous vp at Credit score Karma. “However remember the fact that it may be a trouble to take away a freeze from all three bureaus each time you want a credit score examine.”

How one can freeze your credit score

An important factor to know while you freeze your credit score is that the credit score bureaus is not going to notify one another of a credit score freeze as when you had been reporting an occasion of id theft. You may have to freeze your credit score from all three bureaus individually, says Mahnken.

1. Collect your info

For every of the bureaus, you may want to offer private info together with your full authorized identify, social safety quantity, date of beginning, and residential deal with.

In case you request a credit score freeze by mail, you’ll need to offer extra paperwork that confirm your id, social safety quantity, and deal with. In your id, you’ll need to incorporate a duplicate of your driver’s license, passport, or state-issued ID. In your social, you may want a duplicate of your SSN card, pay stub along with your SSN included, W-2 type, or 1099 type. To confirm your deal with, you’ll need to incorporate a duplicate of a lease settlement, pay stub with deal with, utility invoice, or cellphone invoice. 

2. Attain out to all three credit score bureaus

You will have to put a credit score freeze with every of the three main credit score bureaus individually. This may be achieved on-line, by cellphone, or by mail. These three credit score bureaus are Equifax, Experian, and Transunion.

Equifax credit score freeze: You possibly can simply freeze your credit score with Equifax on its web site, or by way of an automatic cellphone line: 800-685-1111 (800-349-9960 for New York residents). In case you’d moderately speak to a human, its buyer care quantity is 888-298-0045. You can too freeze your credit score by mail utilizing their Fraud Request Alert Kind.

Experian credit score freeze: To freeze your credit score at Experian, you possibly can go to Experian’s on-line Freeze Middle. You can too name 888-EXPERIAN (888-397-3742). You can too ship a written request to Experian Safety Freeze, P.O. Field 9554, Allen, TX 75013.

TransUnion credit score freeze: You possibly can request a TransUnion credit score freeze via their on-line portal. You can too add a freeze by way of the automated cellphone system (or choose to talk to a dwell agent) by calling 888-909-8872. You can too print and full TransUnion’s Safety Freeze Request Kind. 

To handle your credit score freezes, every credit score bureau used to give you a novel PIN, which you’d have to hold in a secure place for while you wished to raise the freeze. Now, every bureau has a service middle that permits you to freeze and unfreeze your credit score.  

3. How one can unfreeze credit score

A credit score freeze might be lifted at any time on-line or by cellphone and can stay in place till you ask the credit score bureau to quickly raise or take away it.

In case you request a raise of the freeze, the credit score bureau should raise it inside one hour, in response to the Federal Commerce Fee. In case you make your request by mail, the credit score bureau should raise the freeze inside three enterprise days after it will get your request. There isn’t a cost to raise the credit score freeze.

Options to credit score freeze

As a result of it is free, a credit score freeze is a good choice for safeguarding your credit score. Nevertheless, there are extra instruments you possibly can deploy to guard your credit score. 

You possibly can place fraud alerts in your credit score, which would require lenders to take cheap steps to verify your id earlier than extending strains of credit score. When you place a fraud alert via one of many credit score bureaus, that bureau is required to tell the opposite bureaus. A fraud alert lasts a yr earlier than it’s a must to renew it. You possibly can look into prolonged fraud alerts, although they’re solely out there to individuals who have reported an occasion of id theft via IdentityTheft.gov or have already been a sufferer of id theft. 

Subscribing to a credit score monitoring service permits you to hold tabs in your credit score with out making any modifications to your credit score. Whereas the free companies normally supply rudimentary credit score monitoring, solely notifying you of any modifications to your credit score report, the paid companies may also supply complete id safety similar to social media monitoring and safety of different monetary accounts together with banking and investments. 

Credit score freeze incessantly requested questions (FAQ)