A credit freeze is the single strongest preventive control you have against new-account identity theft, and it costs nothing. Since September 2018, federal law has required the three nationwide bureaus to place and lift security freezes for free. This post walks through what a freeze actually does, how it differs from a fraud alert, the exact steps to place a freeze at Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion (both online and by mail), how to temporarily lift or permanently remove a freeze, and where Credinity's dispute tools come in once a freeze is already in place.
1. What a credit freeze actually does
A security freeze tells the bureau not to release your credit file to any lender that asks to open a new account in your name. When a freeze is in place, a creditor who tries to pull your file for a new application is turned away at the bureau — they cannot see your report, your score, or your history, and the application is effectively dead on arrival. The freeze does not affect your credit score. It does not stop your existing creditors from reviewing your existing accounts. It does not block soft pulls (prequalified offers, employer checks with your consent, your own monitoring apps). It does not prevent you from pulling your own report. It only blocks the path through which most identity-theft-driven new accounts are opened.
2. Credit freeze vs. fraud alert — what is different
A freeze is a hard block. A fraud alert is a flag that asks the creditor to take extra verification steps before extending credit, but the creditor still gets to see your file. Fraud alerts come in three flavors: an initial 90-day alert you can place yourself, a one-year extended alert you can renew, and a seven-year alert available to confirmed identity-theft victims who file a police report. A freeze is the stronger of the two. Many people run both: a one-year fraud alert costs nothing and adds a soft friction layer for any creditor that does pull when the freeze is being lifted, and a freeze does the rest. Both are free.
When to use each
Use a freeze as your standing default. Use a fraud alert as a focused response to a defined loss — a stolen wallet, a compromised account number, an opened account you did not authorize. A freeze is loss prevention; a fraud alert is closer to a damage-control signal. If you have already discovered an account opened in your name, a freeze alone will not stop that account — you need a dispute under FCRA Section 611 to remove the tradeline from your report, which is the work Credinity handles on an ongoing basis.
3. How to freeze at Equifax
Equifax is the bureau most often paired with mortgage and bank underwriting. It is also the bureau that was breached in 2017, which is why many starting consumers place the first freeze here. Equifax supports both online and mail flows; the online flow gives you a PIN immediately, the mail flow takes roughly three weeks.
Online (fastest)
Go to the Equifax security freeze page and follow the prompts. You will be asked to create an account if you do not already have one with Equifax for consumer requests. Provide your full legal name, address, date of birth, and Social Security number. Equifax will issue you a PIN at the end of the process — write it down and store it somewhere safe. The PIN is the credential you use to lift or remove the freeze later, and you will not be able to recover it without repeating the identity-verification flow.
By mail
Mail your written request to Equifax Security Freeze, PO Box 105788, Atlanta, GA 30348. Include the following: full legal name, current and previous addresses for the last two years, date of birth, Social Security number, a copy of a recent utility bill, bank statement, or insurance statement that proves your current address, and an explicit written request to place a security freeze on your consumer file. Equifax will mail the PIN back to you once the freeze is in place. Plan for up to three weeks of processing time and keep a copy of the request for your own records.
4. How to freeze at Experian
Experian is the bureau dominant in credit-card underwriting and in many auto-loan decisions. The Experian online security freeze page is at experian.com/freeze/center.html. The online flow is similar to Equifax: create an account, verify identity, place the freeze, receive a PIN. Experian uses the PIN you receive for any subsequent lift or removal, so treat it the same way you would treat a password.
To place a freeze by mail, write to Experian Security Freeze, PO Box 9554, Allen, TX 75013. The same five items are required: full legal name, current and prior-two-year addresses, date of birth, Social Security number, and proof of current address in the form of a recent utility, bank, or insurance statement. State plainly in your letter that you are requesting a security freeze. Experian will mail the PIN back once processing completes; the mail path typically takes longer than the online path.
5. How to freeze at TransUnion
TransUnion is the third of the three nationwide bureaus. The online flow is run through transunion.com — credit freeze is in the consumer section of the site. The placement process uses the same identity-verification fields as the other two bureaus: name, address, date of birth, Social Security number. TransUnion will issue a PIN on completion.
Mail requests go to TransUnion Fraud Victim Assistance Department, PO Box 2000, Chester, PA 19016. Use the same mail package: full legal name, current and previous addresses, date of birth, Social Security number, a recent utility, bank, or insurance statement as address proof, and an explicit written request for a security freeze. TransUnion's mail flow is comparable in speed to Equifax and Experian; budget two to three weeks.
Place all three freezes on the same day if you can. The bureaus do not share freeze state — a freeze at Equifax does not reach Experian or TransUnion, and vice versa. New-account fraud protection only works when the freeze is in place at every bureau a lender could pull.
6. How to temporarily lift or permanently remove a freeze
A temporary lift is the most common operation. You provide the PIN (or log in to the account you used to place the online freeze) to the bureau, name the specific lender you are authorizing, and choose a window — usually one day, sometimes one creditor at a time. The bureau unblocks the file for that window only, then re-freezes automatically when it closes. Most mortgage, auto, and credit-card applications can be completed inside a single one-day lift; rate-shop within that window.
A permanent removal is its own request. Once you remove a freeze, you cannot add it back without repeating the full placement process (including getting a new PIN). Lift, do not remove, when you are planning to apply for credit in the near term. Reserve permanent removal for the moment you no longer want the freeze at all — typically only if you are confident new-account fraud risk is no longer a concern.
7. When Credinity's dispute tools help beyond freezing
A freeze stops new-account fraud. It does not clean up inaccurate, incomplete, or unverifiable items already on your report. A collection that should have fallen off the FCRA seven-year window, an account number that does not match your records, a balance that has been paid in full for eighteen months but still reports "unpaid" — those items live on the report until a dispute under FCRA Section 611 forces the bureau to either verify them with documentation or remove them. Credinity generates those disputes, tracks every round, and escalates procedurally when a bureau re-verifies without producing the Section 611(a)(6) investigation response it owes you.
The right pairing is freeze + ongoing dispute automation: the freeze prevents the next fraudulent account; Credinity removes the ones that have already landed. The two processes run independently and stack — placing a freeze does not slow dispute turnaround, and ongoing dispute work does not interfere with the lift-and-refreeze flow when you need credit.