How to freeze your credit for free

How to freeze your credit for free, in the United States, means placing a security freeze at each nationwide bureau. While the freeze is on, a new creditor that needs the file is generally blocked from the pull it uses to open an account. The Federal Trade Commission says the freeze is free to place and free to lift, that anyone can place one for any reason, and that it lasts until you lift it. It does not change your credit score, and it does not delete what is already on the report.

Other countries do not use Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion this way, and they do not use this statute. The steps below are the United States security freeze under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, 15 U.S.C. §1681c-1. A “freeze” sold under another country’s law is a different product.

The freeze is free

There is no fee for placing a freeze, for a temporary lift, or for removing it. That has been federal law since the 2018 amendments. You do not have to wait for a data breach. You do not have to be an identity-theft victim. The FTC’s current advice is that anyone can do it, at any time.

Do it yourself. A company that offers to freeze your credit for a price is charging for a step the bureaus must do for free. The freeze is placed with the bureau, not with Borrowology, and nothing you read here is sent to a bureau.

How to freeze your credit at all three bureaus

Each bureau keeps its own file and its own freeze. A freeze at Experian does not freeze Equifax or TransUnion. “How to freeze your credit at all 3 credit bureaus” is three requests, not one.

The FTC tells consumers to contact all three, and it publishes these starting points:

• Equifax, at the bureau’s credit-report services page, or 1-800-685-1111.
• Experian, at the bureau’s help page, or 1-888-397-3742.
• TransUnion, at the bureau’s credit-help page, or 1-888-909-8872.

Confirm the page and the number on the bureau’s own site before you send identity documents. Addresses and menus change. The legal duty does not: a nationwide bureau has to accept the request.

One freeze covers one bureau file. Confirm the URL on the bureau’s site before you send identity documents.

1. 1. Experian

   1-888-397-3742

   Experian freeze page

2. 2. Equifax

   1-800-685-1111

   Equifax freeze page

3. 3. TransUnion

   1-888-909-8872

   TransUnion freeze page

The Federal Trade Commission says placing and lifting a security freeze is free. A lock inside a bureau app is a different product. This site does not place a freeze for you.

How to freeze your credit on Experian is the Experian request only. Repeat it at Equifax and at TransUnion if you want all three files blocked. How to freeze your credit on TransUnion is the same idea in the other direction. A freeze “on Credit Karma,” or inside any score app that is not the bureau, is not a substitute. If the app only redirects you, the freeze still has to be completed with the bureau. If the app offers its own lock, that is the next section, not this one.

If you request the freeze online or by phone, the FTC says the bureau must place it within one business day. If you mail the request, the bureau must place it within three business days. A mailed request is slower on purpose. Use it when you cannot use the phone or the site, and check the bureau’s current mailing instructions rather than an old blog’s envelope.

A parent or guardian asking for a freeze on a child under 16 uses a different process. The FTC says the bureaus explain that process separately. This page does not restate the document list, because the bureau’s list is the one that will be accepted.

When you need the freeze lifted

A freeze is a gate on new credit, not a lock on your existing cards. The FTC says you can keep using accounts you already have, and that a thief who already has a card number can still try to charge it. Watch the accounts themselves. The freeze will not see those charges.

When you want a new card, a car loan, or another product that pulls a file, lift the freeze at the bureau that lender will use. You can lift it for a window of days or remove it until you place it again. If you ask online or by phone, the bureau must lift the freeze within one hour. A mailed request has three business days, so a mail lift is a poor way to unblock a same-day application.

Some uses of a report are carved out by the statute even while a freeze is in place, including certain reviews of an account you already have. The consumer pages also discuss jobs, apartments, and insurance in ways that are easy to over-read. The safe step is the narrow one: if a particular application says it cannot see the file, lift the freeze at that bureau for that pull, then put it back. Do not assume every background check is blocked, and do not assume none of them are.

Credit freeze vs lock vs fraud alert

A credit lock, or a “lock” inside a bureau app, is that company’s product. A security freeze is the statutory mechanism. The FTC and the bureaus both tell people not to treat the words as synonyms. A lock may be packaged with a paid service. A freeze cannot be priced. If you came here from “credit freeze vs lock,” the distinction is the statute: §1681c-1 is the freeze. The lock’s rules are whatever the app’s terms say, and those terms can change without Congress.

A fraud alert is a third object. It tells a user of the report to take extra steps to verify identity. It does not block the pull the way a freeze does. To place an initial fraud alert, the FTC says you contact one bureau, and that bureau must tell the other two. An initial alert lasts one year. An extended alert is for a person who has reported identity theft, and the statute sets a longer period for that alert. An active-duty alert is a third kind, also in §1681c-1, with its own length. None of the three is a dispute under 15 U.S.C. §1681i, and none of them deletes a tradeline.

What a freeze leaves on the report

Items already in the file stay until they age off under the reporting rules, the furnisher updates them, or a dispute changes them. Collections, late payments, and balances remain visible to you, and they remain visible to the uses the statute still allows. Your own request for your report is not blocked. The FTC says you can still get your free reports with a freeze in place.

If the item is wrong, the path is how to dispute a credit report error. If the question is how the file is scored, that is how your credit score is made up. A freeze does not rebuild payment history, and it does not move a balance. It answers a narrower question: how to make the next new-credit pull harder, at each bureau, for free, until you lift it.