Featured Discussion: Have you ever needed to freeze your credit?

Gotta admit, even though I just read the article posted, it still strikes me as an enormous hassle (even though the article literally finishes with, “it’s not a hassle!”)… but maybe I’m just oddly fearful of freezing it and being unable to thaw it. 

 

Echoing the sentiment, if someone has frozen their credit, do tell!

 

 

 

 

I would be more interested in knowing how to freeze my credit rather than my credit score.

Hi @300zxuser,

 

Thanks so much for the question and there was a typo in the original discussion post.  The title should have been about freezing your credit, as you mentioned, rather than freezing your credit score.

 

I’ve updated the discussion title to avoid any future confusion.  I appreciate you taking the time to chime in and hope that you’ll find the article helpful.

 

I’d also love to hear more about any thoughts you can share about your interest in freezing your credit?

I’ve long favored freezing at the three major credit agencies (Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion) and have done so for a while now.  It used to be much more difficult to do the thaw.  There were automated phone systems in play and sometimes one of the agencies would require mailing in or faxing in additional proof, then the online sites became available and made things easier, but even then they would occasionally require additional proof as well.

 

Today, you can do the equivalent to a freeze at each of the major credit agencies via their mobile app.  Just as many credit card issuers have done, they use the concept of locking and unlocking:

If anyone knows of how to get the Experian lock for free, I’d love to hear about it.  Since locking has become available, I’ve now switched to using that instead of the classic credit freeze at Equifax and at TransUnion.  Hopefully Experian will join the party and make their lock feature free as well.

 

Locks are not governed by federal law though, so if you want the most protection, you should still go with the security freeze.  See this article: https://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/finance/credit-lock-and-credit-freeze/

Featured Discussion: Have you ever needed to freeze your credit?

Research & References of Featured Discussion: Have you ever needed to freeze your credit?|A&C Accounting And Tax Services
Source