Last reviewed 31 October 2026
What a freeze does — and doesn't
A credit freeze restricts access to your credit file so that no one can open a new credit card, loan, or financing account in your name — not a thief, not a data broker, not you, until you lift it. It's the lock on the door identity thieves actually use: they rarely drain an existing account when they can open a fresh one you won't notice for months.
What a freeze does not do:
- It doesn't affect your credit score.
- It doesn't change your existing cards, loans, or bank accounts in any way.
- It doesn't stop fraud on cards you already hold (that's the next step — card limits).
- It isn't a fraud alert. An alert just asks lenders to double-check; a freeze blocks the file outright. The freeze is the stronger tool, and since 2018 it has been free by law at all three bureaus.
One more distinction that trips people up: the bureaus also sell products called “locks.” A freeze is your legal right and always free. If a page is asking you to pay to freeze your credit, you're in the wrong place.
There is no single website that freezes all three
This is the question everyone asks, so here is the direct answer: no official site freezes all three bureaus in one action. Each bureau holds its own file on you, and each one must be frozen separately. Any third-party service offering to “freeze all three for you” is a middleman standing between you and something the law says is free — skip it and go to the bureaus directly. (AnnualCreditReport.com is a real, official site, but it's for reading your credit reports, not freezing them.)
The good news: the three stops are the whole job, and each takes about ten minutes.
The three stops
1. Equifax — equifax.com/personal/credit-report-services/credit-freeze · 1-800-349-5355
2. Experian — experian.com/freeze/center.html · 1-888-397-3742
3. TransUnion — transunion.com/credit-freeze · 1-800-916-8800
At each one, the same four moves:
- Create an account (or sign in) and find the freeze option — it's usually labeled “Security Freeze” or “Place Freeze.”
- Place the freeze and confirm it shows as active before you leave the page.
- Save the PIN or account password somewhere you keep important passwords. You will need it to lift the freeze later, and “later” might be at a car dealership with a salesperson waiting.
- Repeat at the next bureau. Three separate files, three separate freezes — done means all three.
Freeze the whole household
A freeze is per person. Yours does not cover your spouse — every adult needs their own three.
And freeze your children. A child's Social Security number with no credit history is a clean slate a thief can build on for years before anyone checks. Under the same federal law, you can place a freeze for a child under 16: each bureau creates a protected record for the child and freezes it. It costs nothing, and the first time most families should ever need to lift it is when the child is old enough to apply for credit themselves.
Lifting it when you need credit
A freeze is not a life sentence on borrowing. When you apply for a mortgage, a car loan, an apartment, or a new card, ask which bureau the lender checks, then lift the freeze for just that bureau — online it takes minutes, and you can set it to re-freeze automatically after a number of days you choose. The habit to build: freeze by default, lift on purpose, for a set window, for a named reason. That's the entire rhythm.
The storm connection
Do this before hurricane season, not after landfall. In the weeks after a disaster, families hand personal information to aid programs, insurers, landlords, and contractors at exactly the moment they're least able to monitor their accounts — and post-disaster identity fraud is a documented pattern, not a hypothetical. A freeze placed on a calm Tuesday costs you nothing and asks nothing of you during the chaotic weeks. That's what ready means.
Sources: Federal Trade Commission — Credit Freeze FAQ (consumer.ftc.gov) · Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion freeze centers (linked above)