How to freeze your credit (2024)

A credit freeze is easy to set up and a smart way to protect against identity theft. When you freeze your credit, you prevent unauthorized access to your credit report. This helps protect against fraudsters opening new accounts in your name even if they have your personal information.

Below, CNBC Select explains how to freeze your credit with each credit bureau and some common questions surrounding credit freezes.

A credit freeze (also known as a security freeze) restricts access to your credit reports, helping safeguard against fraudsters opening new accounts in your name. There is no effect on your credit score or current credit accounts.

There are three main credit bureaus — Experian, Equifax and TransUnion — and you'll need to freeze your credit with each. The process with each can be completed in less than 10 minutes.

• Equifax: Go to the Equifax consumer services center or call 800-349-9960.
• Experian: Contact Experian's security freeze center or call 888-397-3742.
• TransUnion: Go to the TransUnion's website or call 888-909-8872.

You'll need to provide your name, address, Social Security number, birth date and other personal information. You'll typically be asked a few questions to verify your identity and then be asked to create a PIN, which should be kept in a secure location.

Alternatively, you can use an identity monitoring platform like Aura to freeze and unfreeze your credit without having to go through each of the credit bureaus. Users have 24/7 access to Aura's team, which will notify your creditors and the credit bureaus and work to freeze your credit so fraudsters can't do further damage.

As part of its identity monitoring service, Aura sends you an alert if your Social Security number, driver's license, passport, email or other information has been found on the dark web or if important accounts have been breached. While you'll pay a fee for Aura's services ($9/month billed yearly for the individual plan), you also get a level of service and protection that you won't have with a simple credit freeze.

Experts recommend freezing your credit report so you can proactively monitor your accounts. Checking credit card bills, bank statements or credit reports periodically is helpful, but those actions are reactive and cannot ward off potential fraud.

A credit freeze is a free tool that limits access to your credit reports and can help safeguard against identity theft. While credit reports are a great resource, they're not a fool-proof way to prevent fraud. Credit reports reduce access to your credit and prevent new account openings, but they don't prevent someone from stealing your credit card number.

When you freeze your credit, you limit who has access to your credit report. You'll still have access to your credit and can check your credit report for free.

Fraudsters won't be able to open new accounts in your name — regardless of whether they have your Social Security number or other personal information.

Any banks that you already have relationships with will continue to have access to your credit report. If you request a credit limit increase on your Citi Double Cash® Card, for example, Citi may review your credit report.

Government agencies and your creditors and debt collectors can still review your reports, and can companies you've hired to monitor your credit file.

Marketing companies may also have access to your reports. If you want to stop getting prescreened credit offers, opt out by going online or calling 888-567-8688.

You can unfreeze your credit by going to the same credit bureau websites that you accessed to freeze your credit. You can choose how long you would like the freeze lifted, whether it's one day or permanently.

Online or telephone requests to unfreeze your credit must be fulfilled within one hour, while mail requests must be completed within three days of receiving the request.

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At CNBC Select, our mission is to provide our readers with high-quality service journalism and comprehensive consumer advice so they can make informed decisions with their money. Every credit monitoring article is based on rigorous reporting by our team of expert writers and editors with extensive knowledge of financial products. While CNBC Select earns a commission from affiliate partners on many offers and links, we create all our content without input from our commercial team or any outside third parties, and we pride ourselves on our journalistic standards and ethics.

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