Is a credit freeze free in the USA?

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Yes — federal law has required Equifax, Experian and TransUnion to provide freezes, unfreezes and temporary lifts free of charge since September 2018, including for children. A freeze blocks new credit being opened in your name, does not affect your score, and lifts online in minutes when you need it. The freeze is the strongest consumer protection in American credit and one of the least used. It blocks lenders from pulling your report, which stops most new-account fraud outright — an identity thief with your Social Security number still cannot open a card or loan, because the application dies at the credit check. You must place it separately at all three bureaus, because different lenders pull from different ones. Freezing one leaves two doors open, and this is the standard mistake. A freeze does not touch your existing accounts, your score, your ability to use cards, or checks by employers and existing creditors. When you apply for something, you lift it — online or by app, in minutes, for a chosen window or lender — and refreeze after. The weaker alternative is a fraud alert: free, placed with one bureau which must tell the others, lasting one year (seven with an identity theft report), and requiring lenders to verify identity rather than blocking the pull. There is little reason to prefer it unless you apply for credit constantly. Freezes for minors are also free and worth placing, since child identity theft commonly runs undetected for years until the child first applies for credit. If fraud has already happened: IdentityTheft.gov generates a recovery plan and an official FTC Identity Theft Report that creditors must accept, and disputes at the bureaus are free under the Fair Credit Reporting Act.

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