Credit Freeze: The Complete Guide

Most freeze articles stop at three websites. That is the part the bureaus advertise. It leaves out four other agencies that sell reports about you. It skips the legal gap between a freeze and the lock the same company will try to sell you. And it rarely says what a freeze does not touch.

Key points

• Freezes became free nationwide in 2018. Section 301 of the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act added the national security freeze rule at FCRA § 1681c-1(i).
• The law sets clocks. A freeze goes on within one business day by phone or secure website, or three business days by mail. It comes off within one hour, or three business days by mail.
• A credit freeze is a legal right. A "credit lock" is a contract. The CFPB says locks cost money, are often bundled, and are "no more effective than security freezes, which are free and which you have a right to by law."
• Freezing all three nationwide bureaus is the baseline. Four more agencies hold separate files: Innovis, NCTUE, ChexSystems, and LexisNexis.
• A freeze has no effect on credit scores. The CFPB says so directly: freezes do not impact credit scores in any way.

What a credit freeze is, and why it costs nothing

The law is unusually strict about timing. That is useful when a bureau drags its feet.

Action	By phone or secure website	By mail
Place a freeze	Within 1 business day	Within 3 business days
Remove or briefly lift a freeze	Within 1 hour	Within 3 business days
Written confirmation of placement	Within 5 business days	Within 5 business days

Freeze, lock, fraud alert, or monitoring?

Most competing pages blur the freeze and the lock. The bureaus present them side by side, so that is easy to do. They are not the same kind of thing. One is a right you can enforce. The other is a subscription feature.

	Credit freeze	Credit lock	Fraud alert	Credit monitoring
What it is	A right under FCRA § 1681c-1(i)	A bureau product, set by contract	A right under the FCRA	A paid service
Cost	Free by law	A fee, often inside a paid plan	Free	Usually paid
What it does	Blocks release of your file to most new creditors	Bureau limits access on its own terms	Tells lenders to check your identity first	Alerts you after a change posts
How long it lasts	Until you remove it	Per the provider's terms	Initial: 1 year. Extended: 7 years. Active duty: 1 year	While you subscribe
Where to place it	Each agency, one at a time	The bureau's app or site	One bureau, which must tell the other two	The provider
Effect on score	None	None	None	None

The CFPB states the split cleanly. Credit bureaus "also offer 'credit locks' for a fee, often bundled with other services you must pay for." Those locks "are no more effective than security freezes, which are free and which you have a right to by law."

Fraud alerts do a different job. The FTC lays out three kinds. An initial alert runs one year and can be renewed. An extended alert runs seven years. It needs an FTC identity theft report from IdentityTheft.gov or a police report, and it also drops you from prescreened offer lists for five years. An active duty alert runs one year. In each case you contact one bureau, and it must tell the other two. A freeze works the other way: each agency must be handled on its own.

Freezing at the three nationwide bureaus

Agency	Official freeze page	Phone
Equifax	equifax.com/personal/credit-report-services/credit-freeze/	(888) 298-0045
Experian	experian.com/help/credit-freeze/	1-888-397-3742
TransUnion	transunion.com/credit-freeze	800-916-8800

A few differences show up once you start. Experian's freeze is now tied to an account and no longer needs a PIN, and it offers scheduled thaws. TransUnion treats online and phone requests as nearly instant, with mail taking up to three business days. Equifax repeats that placing, lifting, and removing is free. It also warns that the freeze must be placed separately at the other two bureaus.

The agencies most freeze guides skip

Each one sells reports that drive a decision the big three do not cover. A thief who cannot open a credit card can still open a phone line, a checking account, or an insurance policy.

Agency	What its file covers	Where to freeze
Innovis	A fourth national credit file. The CFPB lists it under supplementary reports. It is also one of the four bureaus behind prescreen opt-out	innovis.com/personal/securityFreeze
NCTUE	Telecom, pay TV, and utility account and payment history, reported by member companies. Equifax manages the data	nctue.com/consumer/, which routes to the NCTUE consumer portal. Freeze line 1-866-349-5355
ChexSystems	Deposit-account history. This is the file behind checking and savings denials	chexsystems.com/security-freeze/place-freeze
LexisNexis Risk Solutions	Public records, property and lien data, and insurance claims history. The freeze also covers SageStream	consumer.risk.lexisnexis.com/freeze

LexisNexis says on its freeze page that it charges no fee to apply, lift, or remove a freeze. It also says that freeze does not reach Equifax, Experian, TransUnion, or Innovis. ChexSystems provides all consumer disclosure reports free under the FCRA. So it is possible to read that file before deciding to freeze it. If a bank has already turned down an application, ChexSystems and bank account denials covers what the file holds and how to dispute it.

Temporary lifts, and how to plan around them

1. Ask which bureau the lender will pull

   The FTC suggests finding out which bureau a lender uses. Lift the freeze at that one, then refreeze once the check is done. Many lenders will say if asked.

2. Lift by phone or online, not by mail

   The one-hour deadline only applies to toll-free phone or secure website requests. A mailed request gets three business days. That is rarely fast enough for an application.

3. Set an end date

   A lift can be scheduled for a set period. After it, the freeze returns with no further action. That removes the most common failure: lifting for a car loan and never refreezing.

4. Lift all three when the lender is unknown

   Mortgage underwriting pulls all three bureaus. So do many car dealers, who shop several banks at once. In those cases a one-bureau lift will stall the file.

Freezes and inquiries meet in one useful way. With a file frozen, a stray hard inquiry usually cannot happen at all, because the report is not there to pull. Our hard inquiries guide covers what those pulls do and do not cost once they land.

Freezing a child's credit file

The FTC urges a free freeze for any child under 16. It notes the process differs from an adult's. Each bureau runs its own version, and most are mail-based because they need documents:

• Experian does not knowingly keep credit files on minors. Minors aged 14 and up can request their own. For younger children, a parent sends documents by mail or upload.
• Equifax creates a file and then freezes it, usually within three business days of a mailed request. Minors aged 16 and 17 can ask for their own freeze by phone or mail.
• TransUnion calls it a Protected Consumer Freeze. It is available by mail for children 15 and under. The minor can remove it at 16.

Expect to send papers. That means your own government ID and proof of address, the child's birth certificate and Social Security card, and proof of guardianship where it applies. This is the highest-value item on the page. Child identity theft is often found years later, when the child applies for a first loan or a first apartment.

A deceased person's credit file

The bureaus publish the steps. Send a copy of the death certificate. Add the person's full legal name, Social Security number, date of birth, and date of death. A spouse or a legally authorized person is normally the one who can ask. Others are usually asked to add their own ID plus a will, executor papers, or a power of attorney. Equifax says a deceased notice added by one bureau is passed to the other two.

What a credit freeze does not stop

The exceptions are written into the law itself, at FCRA § 1681c-1(i)(4). A freeze does not apply to reports given to:

1. A company you have or had an account or contract with, plus its agents and collectors, for reviewing the account or collecting the debt. "Reviewing" expressly covers account upkeep, monitoring, credit line increases, and upgrades.
2. Federal, state, or local agencies, law enforcement, courts, or a collection agency acting under a court order, warrant, or subpoena.
3. A child support agency working under Title IV-D of the Social Security Act.
4. A federal or state agency looking into fraud, or collecting late taxes or unpaid court orders.
5. Companies making firm offers of credit or insurance. Those are the prescreened offers that arrive in the mail.
6. Credit monitoring you subscribe to, and requests for your own report or score.

The CFPB puts the same list more simply. While a freeze is on, only a few kinds of entities can see your file. Those are creditors of accounts you hold now, certain government bodies such as child support agencies, and companies you have hired to watch your file.

• ✕Freezing one bureau and assuming the other two are covered. Each nationwide agency has to be frozen on its own.
• ✕Paying for a credit lock when the freeze is free and, per the CFPB, no less effective.
• ✕Stopping at the big three and leaving Innovis, NCTUE, ChexSystems, and LexisNexis wide open.
• ✕Expecting a freeze to stop prescreened mail offers. That is a separate opt-out at optoutprescreen.com, free for five years online or forever by mail.
• ✕Expecting a freeze to stop tax refund fraud. The IRS tool for that is an Identity Protection PIN, a six-digit number that blocks a return filed with your SSN.
• ✕Assuming a freeze guards existing account numbers. It only blocks new-credit access; card fraud goes through the issuer's dispute process.
• ✕Lifting a freeze for an application and never putting it back, instead of scheduling a lift with an end date.
• ✕Freezing your own file but leaving a child's file open, when a child's unused Social Security number is the better target.

Frequently asked questions

Does a credit freeze cost anything?

No. Placing, briefly lifting, and removing a security freeze is free at every nationwide credit reporting agency. That became national law under section 301 of the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act of 2018. It added FCRA § 1681c-1(i), which requires agencies to act "free of charge." Innovis, ChexSystems, and LexisNexis also state that their freezes carry no fee.

Does freezing my credit hurt my credit score?

No. The CFPB says security freezes do not impact credit scores in any way whatsoever. A freeze changes who may see the file. It does not change what is in it. It does not close accounts, alter balances, remove history, or add any entry that scoring models read. Lifting and refreezing has no effect either.

What is the difference between a credit freeze and a credit lock?

A freeze is a right created by federal law, and it is free. A lock is a product a credit bureau sells under its own contract terms, often inside a paid plan. The CFPB says credit locks "are no more effective than security freezes, which are free and which you have a right to by law." Only the freeze carries legal deadlines.

How fast does a credit freeze take effect?

The FCRA requires a nationwide agency to place a freeze within one business day of a request by toll-free phone or secure website. A mailed request gets three business days. Written confirmation must follow within five business days. Removal is faster: one hour for a phone or website request, and three business days by mail.

Do I need to freeze all three credit bureaus?

Yes. Each nationwide bureau keeps a separate file, and a freeze at one has no effect at the others, so all three must be handled on their own. Past the big three, Innovis, NCTUE, ChexSystems, and LexisNexis hold separate files. Those cover credit, telecom and utility accounts, deposit accounts, and insurance and public records.

Can I still get my own credit report while frozen?

Yes. The CFPB confirms that you can request, see, and review your own files while a freeze is on. Free weekly reports from all three nationwide bureaus stay available through AnnualCreditReport.com. Credit monitoring services you have hired can also still reach the file, since the statute exempts them from the freeze.

How do I freeze my child's credit report?

Federal law covers "protected consumers" under 16 and people with a guardian. The FTC urges a free freeze for any child under 16. Each bureau runs its own process, mostly by mail. Most ask for the parent's ID and proof of address, plus the child's birth certificate and Social Security card. If no file exists, the agency creates a record just to freeze it.

Can a deceased person's credit report be frozen?

Generally not. It can be marked deceased, so any creditor who pulls it sees the notice. The bureaus accept a notice with a certified death certificate, plus the person's legal name, Social Security number, date of birth, and date of death. TransUnion and Equifax both say that telling one bureau results in the other two being notified.

What does a credit freeze not protect against?

It does not stop existing creditors or their collectors, government and child support agencies, prescreened credit and insurance offers, fraud on account numbers you already hold, or a fake tax return. Those carve-outs sit in FCRA § 1681c-1(i)(4). Prescreen opt-out runs through optoutprescreen.com. Tax filing fraud is handled with an IRS Identity Protection PIN.

Should I place a fraud alert as well as a freeze?

They work together, and the FTC says an alert can be added even when a freeze is already on. The two cover different failures. A freeze keeps the file from being released. An alert tells any lender that does get it to check identity before opening an account. An initial alert runs one year. An extended alert runs seven and needs an FTC identity theft report or a police report.