Freezing your credit report is an important step to take to protect yourself from identity theft with a frozen credit report credit bureaus won t provide information to companies that try to access your information to approve credit or loan applications.
Freeze your credit report free.
Online on the phone in the mail u s.
Prevent you from getting your free annual credit report.
A credit freeze has no effect on your ability to qualify for loans or credit cards but a freeze can prevent a creditor s evaluation of your credit application.
Unless you thaw your credit before you submit a loan application the lender cannot use your credit report or credit score to gauge your qualifications as a borrower.
In order of ease and speed they are.
A credit freeze also known as a security freeze is the best way to help prevent new accounts from being opened in your name.
Requests to freeze your credit report must be made in writing and should include your name address date of birth social security number a copy of a valid id proof of address e g a copy of a utility.
Keep you from opening a new account.
You must freeze your credit report at each credit bureau individually since there s no way to freeze all three credit reports at once.
A credit freeze does not affect your credit score.
It s absolutely free to freeze and unfreeze your credit and it won t affect your credit score.
But to open one you ll need to lift the freeze temporarily.