I just saw that credit freezes can now be placed at no charge with the three credit rating companies. But freezes must be placed with each individual company (Equifax, Trans Union, and Experian) on their respective websites. I will look into it more before I do it. Fraud alerts have always been free, but credit freezes go somewhat further.

We’ve had ours frozen for years since we got caught up in a major Government Data Breach. We only temporarily unfreeze them, usually for less than 30 days, if we need a lender to have access. At the end of the specified period, the accounts automatically refreeze.

When you do the freeze, you’ll receive a PIN for each person for each credit agency. Never lose that PIN, you’ll need it to unfreeze them.

I froze mine a couple years ago. Seems like I remember two of the companies charged a nominal fee of something like $10.
I froze mine because I had some yahoo running around opening up bank accounts using my name and SSN. He opened up at least 4 checking accounts as me but we caught on to it before he could write any checks.

My credit cards were stolen 2 years ago and I never reported it. Why, you might ask...... Because the person who stole them spends less than my wife! HA HA! OLD JOKE OF COURSE

I just saw the announcement in the newspaper this morning. IMO it's about time that a person can freeze and unfreeze their credit without a fee to the credit reporting agencies since they make you jump through hoops to clear a fraudulent account.

Frozen here too, on all three, but mine's free so I don't know why somebody is paying unless it's for some other services too?

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Dave Ramsey Cultist