Credit freeze.
In plain English
A freeze tells each credit bureau to block lenders from pulling your report for new applications, which stops most identity-theft account openings cold. Federal law makes freezing and unfreezing free at all three major bureaus, and you can lift it temporarily online in minutes when you actually apply for something. Existing accounts keep working; your score is unaffected.
01Why it matters
After data breaches put most adults' identifying information in circulation, a freeze is the highest-value free security move available, and almost nobody has done it.
02The math, step by step
You freeze at all three bureaus after a breach notice. A fraudster with your Social Security number applies for a card; the lender can't pull your report and declines. Two years later you want a car loan: you lift the freeze online for a week, then it re-locks.
03What this is NOT
A freeze is not a credit lock (a bureau's app-based product, sometimes paid, with contractual rather than federal-law protections) and not fraud monitoring, which tells you about theft after it happens. The freeze prevents it.
04Receipts
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Plain-English answers from our glossary. Receipts included. Never advice.
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