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Freeze your credit at all three bureaus
Nobody can open new credit in your name, even with your real details.
Why it matters: A freeze stops anyone opening new credit in your name, even with your real details from a breach. It costs nothing, takes effect fast and keeps working as AI makes fake identities cheaper to build.
Do it
- Go to each bureau's own website and request a security freeze. It is free.
- Save each account login in your password manager.
- When you apply for a loan, card or phone plan, lift the freeze at the bureau the lender uses, then let it lapse back or re-freeze.
- Repeat for each adult in the house.
Say this: If I need new credit, I lift the freeze for that one lender and let it go back on.
Check it worked: Every adult in the household has a free credit freeze at Equifax, Experian and TransUnion, and knows how to lift it temporarily when applying for credit.
Simply put
A credit freeze is like a deadbolt on your credit file that only you have the key to. Lenders who check can't see inside, so they won't approve new credit in your name, even with your real details. You unlock it when you apply.
In detail
A freeze doesn't stop misuse of existing accounts or tax and medical identity theft; identity-ip-pin and identity-extra-freezes cover those. Synthetic identities often mix a real number with a fake name, so a freeze on a child's or an older relative's file matters as much as yours.
As a story
A letter arrives from a store you've never shopped at, about a credit card application in your name. Someone has your name, birth date and Social Security number from an old breach.
You froze your credit at all three bureaus last spring. When the store tried to check your credit file, it couldn't see it, so no account was opened.
You call the store on the number from its official website to say the application wasn't you. Then you report it at IdentityTheft.gov, check your free credit reports for anything else and put the letter in your important-papers folder. The freeze stays exactly where it is.
If this is new to you: Will it get in my way? Only when you apply for a loan, card or phone plan. Lift the freeze at that bureau online, then freeze again. It's free.
Points toward the Long View: a name that stays yours as fake identities get cheaper to build.