Credit freeze
Updated
A credit freeze lets you restrict access to your credit file at a nationwide consumer reporting agency when someone applies for new credit in your name. Federal law requires the bureaus to place and lift a freeze for free. Each bureau has its own freeze. Freezing one file does not freeze the other two.
A freeze is not a dispute and not a deletion. Tradelines already in the file remain. Furnishers can still update existing accounts. You can still request your own report. Some uses of a report, including certain existing-creditor reviews the statute allows, are not blocked. A freeze is a gate on most new credit, not invisibility.
A fraud alert is a different tool: a notice that the user of the report should verify identity. A “lock” inside a bureau’s app is that company’s product, governed by its terms, and is not the statutory freeze. Use the freeze when you want the legal gate. Lift it when you are the one applying, and confirm the lift at the bureau that will be pulled.