Starting today you can now freeze and unfreeze your credit report nationwide for free (also referred to as a security freeze, credit report freeze or credit lock). This is thanks to the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act that was signed in May partly in response to the Equifax data breach. Under the new law consumer reporting agencies (Equifax, Experian, TransUnion) have until the next business day to enact a credit freeze and if a consumer wants to lift the freeze it must be done within an hour. These consumer reporting agencies have created dedicated web portals for freezes:
A credit freeze means that your credit report is unable to be accessed or pulled from any of the consumer reporting agencies. Almost all lenders look at an individuals credit report before approving them for a loan, by having your report frozen this can prevent unauthorized loans in your name being processed – something particularly important to victims of identity theft.Previously the fees involved for placing and lifting a security freeze varied state by state. In addition fees also varied based on whether an individual was the victim of identity theft and also the individuals age. Some states already required consumer reporting agencies to provide credit report freezes for free.
If you’d like to know more about the pros and cons of adding a freeze to your report, read this linked article.
View Comments (86)
Is anyone having problems trying to freeze equifax?
Great tips- I didn’t realise you could put a credit freeze on yourself
What's the difference between TU's credit freeze and credit lock?
Could we freeze Experian and Equifax then make Chase pull Transunion?
Anyone else having an issue freezing experian? It's not working for me. They want all my documents and I think it might have something to do with the one address field and no way to enter my apt number
I also just had trouble with this. I've lived at my current address for less than 2 yrs and added 1 prior address to the application. They're requesting a gov ID and proof of residence (bank statement, utility bill, etc.). Tried submitting twice and both times received the "We were unable to honor your request to place a security freeze on your personal credit report based on the information you entered."
I have had an Experian account for several years, too, so seems really odd that this would happen.
My cynical hypothesis is they're making it harder so you then go pay them to "lock" your credit file.
If anyone knows how to report this to a regulatory agency, I'd be interested in reporting.
I had trouble freezing Experian with Safari on Mac, it says I need to mail-in the request after submitting the form of personal information.
Later I tried using Chrome on Windows and the request went through after answering a few identity verification questions.
Anyone else having issues with Transunion? On Friday, I couldn't get confirmation of my freeze. Today, the URL doesn't even work.
Unfortunately it looks like freezing credit for a child/minor can still only be done by postal mail - I'm not finding any options to do it online. For reference here are the forms for doing it by postal mail:
Equifax: https://assets.equifax.com/assets/personal/Minor_Freeze_Request_Form.pdf
Experian: https://www.experian.com/freeze/form-minor-freeze.html
Transunion: https://www.transunion.com/credit-freeze, choose "FREEZE A LOVED ONE'S CREDIT", then "A MINOR OR DEPENDENT"
Just noticed that too. Seriously annoyed by this: in order to freeze the report for a minor, you are asked to send everything required to steal their identity using one of the most insecure channels.
I had banks in the past ask me to send "a copy of my SSN card" clearly revealing that the people coming up with those rules never heard of photoshop and that us mail is not encrypted -- a physical copy doesn't proof anything but significantly increases the risk for the customer.
It's easy to pass on banks that behave that way, but what do you do in the case of a credit report freeze? Send the documents, potentially causing the ID theft you are trying to prevent or hold still and hope that your kids aren't on the radar yet until they come up with a more reasonable way of freezing reports?
Yeah, it really just depends on what you're comfortable with. I start with the assumption that everybody's information has already been compromised, and then I take any steps I can to minimize the damage. Your information is in the hands of far more companies than you may realize, and for every data breach that makes headlines there are several more that are never even discovered.
Personally I'll be sending those documents to the credit bureaus for my kids because I feel like freezing their credit is worth the small risk of sending documents by postal mail.
Tried to freeze my Equifax report online ... and of course, they ask me to send all my personal information, including my SSN, DOB, current and former address via snail mail. So far, this is a joke ...
There's an app for eqifax. Called Lock and alert... it works beautifully and quick&free
Can someone sends a link for Experian? I am not able to find a Experian page when it shows free credit lock and unlock.
I tried to lock it and they tried to charge me 19.99 monthly after 30 days by bundling it. I have their free account and the link there also tried to upsell and had no free link
You want to freeze, not lock. Here's the link to do so: https://www.experian.com/ncaconline/freeze
This could be useful for keeping your insurance companies from doing hard pulls when it comes time for a premium renewal. They hold inquiries against you from what I've read. Even if you have a good FICO score. There is an insurance credit rating that looks at hard pulls. They figure the more hard pulls you have, the more likely you are to process an insurance claim.
Agreed. The law seems to be TSA-like Security Theater to me. Making it harder for low IQ tryhards, but not stopping anything organized
I got a +20% on my home owners policy renewal recently. I was told the company began using LexisNexis's insurance score and I was at risk due to high utilization and multiple accounts. Got a letter saying as much, similar format to a credit card application rejection. No hard pulls involved.
Would freezing the big 3 have stopped that? Sagestream, chexsystems, lexisnexis, FICO company, banks etc are all still swapping data about all sorts of things.
I never gave my SSN to my insurance company but somehow it has it. It might have been on one of the 80 pages of fine print when i signed.
Banks go through rigorous vetting process calling me in my cell phone, asking background questions and then ask me to email them sensitive documents insecurely. They are just going through the motions of security. They really don't give a rat's ass about whether your data is compromised as long as they have done the relevant CYA.
Laws in this land of free are a joke.
Wait - you think you have to give a company your SSN for them to have it? Ha!
When I worked in credit many moons ago I could put in the vaguest of information and pull a credit report. Only have a person's first name and the street they live on? No problem, punch in the street name and get a list of everyone who lives on that street, click on the one you want and pull their report.
For anyone with commercial access to credit info that data is incredibly easy to get.