How to Freeze Your Credit: A Plain-English Guide to Freezes, Fraud Alerts, and Credit Locks

If you want to know how to freeze your credit, this guide covers the full process. A credit freeze is free, takes about 30 minutes spread across three separate requests, and is more effective at preventing new account fraud than most paid identity protection services. The industry I spent 20 years in doesn’t lead with that. This guide does.

Here’s what a freeze actually does, how it differs from the two other tools people confuse it with, and the step-by-step process for setting one up.

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The Three Tools: What Each One Actually Does

Three credit protection tools get mentioned in the same breath so often that most people assume they’re roughly the same thing with different names. They’re not. Each works differently, offers different legal protections, and fits different situations.

Credit Freeze

A credit freeze, also called a security freeze, prevents new lenders from accessing your credit report entirely. Since most lenders won’t extend credit without reviewing your report first, this effectively blocks new accounts from being opened in your name.

A few things worth understanding about how it actually works:

It does not affect your existing accounts. Your current credit cards, loans, and lines of credit function normally. Your credit score is unaffected. Your current creditors can still access your file. You can still get your own free annual credit reports.

It doesn’t expire. A freeze stays in place until you remove it. There’s no annual renewal.

It must be placed at each bureau separately. Placing a freeze at Equifax does not automatically freeze your Experian or TransUnion file. All three require separate requests.

When you need to apply for new credit, you temporarily lift the freeze at whichever bureau the lender uses, then refreeze when you’re done. Online and phone lift requests must be processed within one hour under federal law. You can also lift for a specific time window rather than removing the freeze entirely.

Credit freezes are federally mandated and free at all three major bureaus. That federal mandate matters, and we’ll come back to why when we discuss credit locks.

Fraud Alert

A fraud alert is a notice placed on your credit file that signals lenders to take extra steps to verify your identity before approving new credit. It doesn’t block access to your file. It asks lenders to be more careful.

The key practical difference from a freeze: lenders are not required by law to comply. The alert asks for extra verification. A motivated fraudster who applies for credit under your name may still succeed if a lender doesn’t follow through.

The main convenience advantage: you only need to contact one bureau. That bureau is required by law to notify the other two. So a fraud alert takes one request rather than three.

There are three types:

An initial fraud alert lasts one year and can be renewed. Anyone can place one for any reason.

An extended fraud alert lasts seven years and is available to confirmed identity theft victims who have filed an identity theft report with the FTC or a police report.

An active duty alert lasts one year and is specifically for deployed military members. It also removes them from pre-approved credit offer mailing lists for two years.

Credit Lock

A credit lock works similarly to a credit freeze in practical terms: it blocks new lenders from accessing your credit report. The main selling point is convenience. Locking and unlocking through an app or website is faster than the formal freeze and thaw process.

A few things worth understanding before deciding whether a lock makes sense for you.

First, credit locks are not governed by federal law. A freeze is a right under the Fair Credit Reporting Act. A lock is a contractual arrangement governed by the provider’s own terms of service, which can include arbitration clauses, can be modified at any time, and can be discontinued entirely. TransUnion’s discontinuation of their lock product is a real-world example of what that means in practice. A federal right can’t be taken away by a business decision. A product can.

Second, no provider, bureau or otherwise, offers a lock across all three bureaus. Every credit lock product covers a single bureau’s file only. Identity protection services that include a credit lock as a feature are typically providing access to one bureau’s lock, not three.

The bureau-by-bureau picture as of this writing: Equifax offers a free credit lock through their Lock & Alert product, covering only the Equifax file. Experian’s credit lock is a paid product, making the free freeze the better option there. TransUnion discontinued their credit lock product in 2025, including their previously free TrueIdentity program, and now directs users to the free freeze instead. You may see older articles still referencing TrueIdentity as available. It isn’t.

The practical conclusion: a credit freeze at all three bureaus is free, federally protected, covers all three files, and doesn’t expire. A credit lock offers faster toggling at the cost of narrower coverage and weaker legal standing. For most people, the freeze is the stronger choice. If you’re already using a service that includes an Equifax lock, there’s no harm in using it alongside a freeze. But it doesn’t substitute for freezing all three.

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Which Tool Is Right for Your Situation

You want the strongest protection available and don’t plan to apply for new credit soon: Credit freeze at all three bureaus. Most protective option, no cost, stays in place indefinitely.

You want protection but need easier access for upcoming credit applications: A fraud alert is easier to manage when you’re actively applying for credit, since you don’t need to lift and refreeze. Less protective than a freeze, but more practical for an active credit period.

You’ve been a confirmed identity theft victim: Extended fraud alert, which lasts seven years and provides stronger protections, combined with a credit freeze if you can manage the lift process during credit applications.

You want something that’s quick to toggle on and off: A credit lock through a provider’s app is faster to manage for day-to-day situations. Just understand it carries fewer legal protections than a freeze and covers only one bureau’s file.

You want maximum protection: A fraud alert and a credit freeze together. The fraud alert asks lenders for extra verification; the freeze blocks access unless you’ve lifted it. They’re compatible and many people use both.

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How to Place a Credit Freeze: Step by Step

You’ll need to complete this process separately at each of the three major bureaus. Have the following ready before you start: your Social Security number, your date of birth, your current address, and previous addresses if you’ve moved in the last two years. You may also need a copy of a government-issued ID and a utility bill or financial statement showing your current address, depending on how you submit your request.

Equifax

Online: Create or sign in to a myEquifax account at equifax.com/credit-freeze and navigate to the security freeze option.

By phone: Call 800-685-1111.

By mail: Download the freeze request form from equifax.com, complete it, and mail it with copies of your ID and address documentation to:

Experian

Online: Visit experian.com/freeze and follow the prompts. You’ll create an account if you don’t have one.

By phone: Call 888-397-3742.

By mail: Send a written request with copies of your ID documentation to:

TransUnion

Online: Visit transunion.com/credit-freeze and create or sign in to your account.

By phone: Call 888-909-8872.

By mail: Send your request with documentation to:

Once your freeze is placed, each bureau will confirm it. Keep that confirmation. You’ll need your PIN or online account credentials when you want to lift the freeze later.

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Lifting a Freeze When You Need to Apply for New Credit

When you’re ready to apply for a mortgage, car loan, credit card, or any other credit product, you’ll need to temporarily lift the freeze at the bureau the lender uses. If you don’t know which bureau they use, lift all three to be safe.

Lifting a freeze online or by phone must be processed within one hour under federal law. You can lift permanently, which removes the freeze entirely, or temporarily for a specific date range, which is the better option if you want the freeze to automatically reinstate. Mail requests must be processed within three business days.

Once your application is processed, refreeze if you lifted permanently. If you used a temporary lift with a date range, it reinstates automatically.

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What a Credit Freeze Doesn’t Cover

A credit freeze is the most effective free tool against new account fraud. It is not a complete protection against every form of identity theft.

It doesn’t protect existing accounts. If someone gets into your current bank account or credit card, the freeze doesn’t help. That’s an account security issue, addressed by strong passwords and two-factor authentication.

It doesn’t cover specialty bureaus. Some lenders, particularly those offering non-traditional credit products, report to specialty consumer reporting agencies like ChexSystems, Early Warning Services, and the National Consumer Telecom and Utilities Exchange (NCTUE), which handles utility account history. A freeze at the three major bureaus doesn’t extend to those databases.

It doesn’t prevent medical identity theft, tax identity fraud, or criminal identity theft. Those fraud types don’t require access to your credit file to cause harm.

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Freezing Your Child’s Credit

Children typically have no credit file at all, which means there’s nothing to monitor and no automatic protection. That clean SSN makes them attractive targets for synthetic identity fraud, where a fraudster pairs a real SSN with a fabricated identity.

You can place a protective freeze for a child under 16 at all three bureaus. Each bureau will create a file and immediately freeze it. This requires mailing documentation to each bureau separately. Online or phone requests are not available for minor freezes because of the identity verification requirements.

You’ll need to provide: a copy of your government-issued ID, proof of your address, the child’s birth certificate, the child’s Social Security card, and documentation showing your authority to act on their behalf (a birth certificate showing parentage generally satisfies this).

Because this requires physical mail to three separate bureaus, it takes more time than freezing your own credit. It’s worth doing. A child’s SSN can be fraudulently used for years before anyone notices, and the freeze blocks that activity from taking root.

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The Honest Bottom Line

A credit freeze is the single most effective free action most people can take against new account identity theft. It’s not complicated. It takes about 30 minutes across three requests. It doesn’t hurt your credit score. It doesn’t expire. And it costs nothing.

The industry I came from has every incentive to make paid monitoring services feel essential. A credit freeze at all three bureaus, combined with free annual credit reports and an IRS Identity Protection PIN, covers most of the same ground at zero cost. That’s not an argument against paid services for people who want the additional monitoring layers and restoration support. It’s an argument for making sure the free foundation is in place first.

If you’re deciding whether a paid identity protection service makes sense on top of this foundation, see our piece on whether identity protection is worth it. If you want to understand what paid services actually monitor and where the gaps are, start with our guide to what identity protection services actually do.

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