A scammer can apply for a new credit card or a loan in your name. Before a bank or a card company gives anyone a new card or loan, the bank or card company asks a credit bureau about that person. A credit bureau is a company that keeps a record of your loans and cards. That record is called your credit file. There are three credit bureaus: Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. A company that gives out cards and loans, such as a bank or a card company, is called a lender. The lender asks a bureau for your credit file whether you apply or a scammer applies in your name.
A credit freeze stops lenders from looking at your credit file. While the freeze is on, no lender can see the file, so neither you nor anyone else can open a new card or a loan in your name. When you want credit yourself, you lift the freeze first; to lift a freeze is to take the freeze off. A freeze is free. A freeze does not change your credit score, the number that lenders use to judge your credit. A freeze stays on until you lift it. Anyone can place a freeze for any reason before anything has gone wrong.
A freeze has to be placed at each of the three bureaus separately. Place the freeze at Equifax first, then at Experian, then at TransUnion.
Before you start
- About fifteen minutes for each bureau, so about forty-five minutes for all three.
- Your Social Security number, your date of birth and the addresses you have lived at for the past two years.
- Your password manager open on a computer or a phone. A password manager is an app that keeps your passwords for you. You will make an account at each bureau. Each account's username and password go in the password manager.
- Page 3 of the workshop worksheet. You write the date of each freeze there. If you do not have the worksheet, use a sheet of paper that you keep with your important papers.
Place the freeze at all three bureaus
Do the steps under each bureau's heading in order. Then do the steps under For everyone. Under each heading you make an account at that bureau; as soon as the account is made, save the account's sign-in in your password manager. On a computer, click where a step says tap.
Equifax
You must be 18 or older to make an Equifax account.
- Open the Equifax freeze page. Go to equifax.com. Find Place a Security Freeze and tap it. Equifax calls the freeze a security freeze; a security freeze and a credit freeze are the same thing.
- Make your myEquifax account. Equifax has you make a myEquifax account before you can place the freeze. A myEquifax account is your own sign-in at Equifax.
- Place the freeze. Once you are signed in, place the freeze from the account. Equifax's page, as we read it, does not say what the screen for placing the freeze shows, so we cannot say which words to look for. If you would rather place the freeze by phone, call Equifax at (888) 298-0045. On the phone, Equifax checks that it is you with a one-time PIN sent by text or with questions taken from your credit report. A PIN is a short number code. One-time means the PIN works once. That PIN is only for the check, so it is not a thing to write on the worksheet. Your credit report is another name for your credit file.
Experian
- Open the Experian freeze page. Go to experian.com/freeze.
- Make your Experian account or sign in. Making an Experian account is free. If you already have an Experian account, sign in to that account instead.
- Place the freeze. Once you are signed in, place the freeze from the account. Experian's page, as we read it, does not say what the screen for placing the freeze shows, so we cannot say which words to look for. The freeze takes effect at once. Experian no longer uses a PIN, a short number code, for a freeze, so there is no PIN to write down. If you would rather place the freeze by phone, call Experian at 1-888-397-3742.
TransUnion
TransUnion's own freeze page would not open when this guide was written. These steps rest on short pieces of that page shown in search results and on TransUnion's Freeze Support Center.
- Open the TransUnion freeze page. Go to transunion.com/credit-freeze.
- Make your TransUnion Service Center account or sign in. A TransUnion Service Center account is your own sign-in at TransUnion. If you already have a TransUnion Service Center account, sign in to that account instead.
- Place the freeze. Start from the account home, the main page of your account after you sign in. Find Credit Freeze and tap it. Then find Add Freeze and tap it. The pieces of TransUnion's page that we could read end at Add Freeze, so we cannot say what shows next. If you would rather place the freeze by phone, call TransUnion at 800-916-8800.
For everyone
- Check that all three sign-ins are saved. Open your password manager and look for the Equifax, Experian and TransUnion sign-ins. You will need all three sign-ins to lift a freeze later.
- Record each freeze on the worksheet. On page 3 of the worksheet, tick Freeze placed for each bureau and write the date next to each tick. Tick Password Manager Transfer once the three sign-ins are saved.
- Check that it worked. When you ask online or by phone, each bureau must place the freeze within one business day; a business day is a weekday that is not a holiday. Each bureau must then send you a written confirmation of the freeze within five business days. The confirmation also tells you how to remove the freeze. Look for a confirmation from each of the three bureaus.
When you need credit
Before you apply for a card, a loan or a new phone plan, ask the lender which bureau the lender checks. Then sign in to your account at that bureau and lift the freeze for the length of time you choose. All three bureaus offer a temporary lift, a lift that ends on its own. At Experian you can schedule the lift with a start date and an end date. When you ask online or by phone, the bureau must lift the freeze within one hour. When the lift ends, the freeze is back on.
The person you trust to handle your affairs should know where your three bureau sign-ins are kept.
What this does not do
- A freeze does not stop charges on cards you already hold, so keep your bank alerts on; bank alerts are the messages your bank sends you when something happens on your account.
- A freeze does not hide your credit file from a company you already have an account with, such as your card company. It also does not hide the file from a company you have hired to watch your credit file, or from some government offices, such as a child support office.
- A freeze does nothing against a scam text or a scam phone call.
- A freeze blocks you as well as scammers. You need the sign-ins to lift the freeze, so keep the sign-ins in your password manager.
If your screen looks different
Experian also takes a freeze request by mail. Write to Experian Security Freeze, P.O. Box 9554, Allen, TX 75013. Send the identity documents that Experian asks for with the letter; identity documents are papers that prove who you are. A credit lock is a different product from the freeze that the law guarantees for free. A credit lock is sometimes paid and has its own terms. If a page asks you to pay, you are on the wrong page. If you cannot find the freeze on a bureau's website, look for the words security freeze or credit freeze, or call the phone number under that bureau's heading.
Sources
- Federal Trade Commission: Credit Freezes and Fraud Alerts, read on 21 October 2026.
- USAGov: How to place or lift a security freeze on your credit report, read on 21 October 2026.
- Consumer Financial Protection Bureau: What is a credit freeze or security freeze on my credit report?, read on 21 October 2026.
- Equifax: Security Freeze, read on 21 October 2026.
- Experian: Freeze or Unfreeze Your Credit File for Free, read on 21 October 2026.
- TransUnion: Credit Freeze. This page would not open when the guide was written on 18 October 2026 or when the guide was checked again on 21 October 2026, so its steps come from short pieces of the page shown in search results.
- TransUnion: Freeze Support Center, read on 18 October 2026. The web address of this page was not recorded, and TransUnion's pages would not open on 21 October 2026.