A credit freeze stops a criminal opening new accounts in your name. It is free, it is a legal right in all fifty states, and it is the single most effective thing most people can do about identity theft.
It also does not affect your credit score, your existing cards, or anything you already have. That is worth saying first, because it is the objection that stops most people.
Do all three, or you have done nothing
There are three major credit bureaus. A lender might check any one of them. A freeze at one does nothing about the other two, so freezing one bureau is not "most of the way there". It leaves the door open.
- Equifax: equifax.com/personal/credit-report-services
- Experian: experian.com/freeze
- TransUnion: transunion.com/credit-freeze
Each one asks you to verify your identity, then issues a PIN or sets up an account login.
Write those PINs down and keep them somewhere you will find them. A frozen file whose PIN is lost is a real nuisance later, and later is exactly when you will be in a hurry.
What it costs you
One real thing: if you apply for new credit, a card, a car loan, a mortgage, sometimes a phone contract. You have to lift the freeze first. That is done online in a few minutes and you can lift it temporarily or for one specific lender.
For most people, and particularly for retirees, that is a rare event. A few minutes once a year against someone opening six cards in your name is not a close call.
While you are there: pull your free reports
Go to annualcreditreport.com. It is the only official free source — everything else advertising "free credit report" is selling something.
Read each report looking for one thing: accounts you do not recognise. Not the score. The score is a distraction. An account you never opened is the thing that matters.
A freeze is not everything
Being honest about the limits, because a false sense of security is its own problem.
A freeze stops new accounts being opened. It does not stop someone using a card you already have, does not stop tax or medical identity theft, and does not stop someone taking over an account you already own.
Two things that cover most of that gap, and both take minutes:
- Transaction alerts at your bank, by text rather than email, on every account and card. Set a low threshold. This turns a theft discovered in three weeks into one discovered in three minutes. Also turn on alerts for changes to your address, phone or email — that is usually a thief's first move, not their last.
- A PIN on your phone carrier account, which blocks SIM swapping. If someone moves your number to their own phone, they receive every security code you are sent. Call the carrier or use the app and set an account PIN or port-out passcode.
The order to do it in
- Bank alerts (fifteen minutes, highest value per minute)
- Credit freeze at all three (thirty minutes)
- Carrier PIN (ten minutes)
- Pull and read your three reports
About an hour in total, all free, and it removes most of the risk most people actually face.
This is one piece of what we cover. The full guide goes into passwords, two-factor, phones, home Wi-Fi, and what to do when something has already gone wrong, thirty-seven walkthroughs in all. Digital Self-Defense, $9.99