Freeze Your Credit at All Three Bureaus Before Thieves Do It for You

  1. Learn what a freeze blocks and what still gets through

    A security freeze seals your file at one bureau. When a prospective creditor asks for the report to open new credit, the bureau declines the request, so a fraudulent application ordinarily stalls before approval. Placing, lifting, and removing a freeze is free at every nationwide bureau, and the freeze holds until you personally request removal.

    Here is the access map the freeze creates, per the CFPB:

    Blocked by the freezeStill sees your file
    New lenders and card issuers you never approachedYou, pulling your own reports
    Applications for credit made in your nameCreditors you already owe
    —Government agencies such as child-support agencies
    —Companies you hired to monitor the file

    Employment checks, tenant screening, and insurance requests sit outside the federal free-freeze rule. Do not count on your freeze to decide how a landlord, employer, or insurer pull is handled — treat those files as governed elsewhere.

    Copy the table into the note that travels with this job — paper or a plain text file titled Freeze scope. Every later decision in this playbook gets judged against these two columns.