What Does Locking Your Credit Do? Freeze, Alerts, and Cost

Locking your credit tells the credit bureau to restrict access to your file so that when a lender, card issuer, or dealer tries to pull your report, the request is automatically rejected. Because the lender never sees your history or score, they cannot open a new account in your name. That is the point of the lock: it stops fraudulent applications before they get anywhere, without changing anything about the accounts you already have.¹

What Happens When the Lock Is On

When you flip the switch in the bureau’s app or website, the bureau flags your file as restricted in its database. A new-credit inquiry from a lender hits that flag and gets blocked, so the lender has nothing to evaluate and cannot approve the account.

Turning the lock on or off does not change your credit score. Your existing balances, payments, and account history continue to be reported and scored the same way regardless of whether the file is locked.¹

One thing to keep in mind: each of the three major bureaus keeps its own file on you, and locking at one does not carry over to the others. To close off all three inquiry channels a lender might use, you have to lock at Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion separately.²

What a Lock Does Not Block

A lock stops new-credit inquiries. It does not make your report invisible. Federal law leaves several channels open even when your file is restricted.³

Companies you already have accounts with can still review your report to manage those accounts, under the Fair Credit Reporting Act’s permissible purposes.⁴
Debt collectors working on a valid debt can pull your file in connection with that debt.
Bureaus must comply with a court order and with subpoenas issued in connection with a federal grand jury proceeding.
Soft inquiries pass through: pre-approved credit offers, insurance underwriting checks, and your own personal credit checks. Soft pulls also have no effect on your score.

There is one boundary worth calling out because it surprises people. Under federal law, a lock or freeze does not apply to credit checks run for employment or tenant screening. In practice, though, some employers and landlords use the same standard credit-pull process a lock would block, so if a prospective employer or landlord tells you they cannot access your report, you may need to lift the lock temporarily to let the check go through.⁵

Lock or Freeze

A credit lock and a credit freeze block new-creditor access the same way. The differences are legal and financial, and they matter when something goes wrong or when you look at the bill.

Legal Backing

A credit freeze is a right guaranteed by federal law. The Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act requires Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion to let you place and lift a freeze for free, and it sets the deadlines the bureaus must meet.⁶

A credit lock is a commercial product governed by the bureau’s own terms of service.⁵ The bureau can change how the lock works, what it covers, and what it costs by updating that agreement. If a lock fails to block an inquiry it should have blocked, your recourse runs through the service agreement rather than the freeze statute.

Speed

Locks are marketed as instant. You toggle them in an app and the change takes effect in seconds. Freezes placed electronically or by phone must go into effect within one business day, and a lift request placed electronically or by phone must be honored within one hour.⁷ In practice many freezes now process within minutes, so the gap has narrowed.

Cost by Bureau

Equifax offers its lock through a plan called Lock & Alert at no cost, along with a single-bureau credit score and alerts.⁸
Experian bundles CreditLock into IdentityWorks Premium, which costs $24.99 per month after a seven-day free trial. There is no standalone free lock, though you can place a free freeze instead.⁹
TransUnion offers a free lock through its TrueIdentity service, with basic credit monitoring at no charge.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has said credit locks are “no more effective than security freezes, which are free and which you have a right to by law.”⁵ If you are paying for a lock, the question worth asking is whether the extras that come with the subscription — monitoring, identity theft insurance, dark-web scanning — are worth the monthly cost compared to a free freeze.

Turning It On and Off

To set up a lock, create an account on each bureau’s website or app. You will typically provide your full legal name, Social Security number, date of birth, and current and previous addresses going back about two years, so the bureau can locate your file and verify who you are.¹⁰ If you lose access to the app, you can manage the file by phone; Equifax, for example, verifies you through a one-time PIN sent by text or through security questions.⁸

Once you are set up, the toggle is simple: log in, find the lock control, switch to locked or unlocked, and wait for the confirmation. When you apply for a loan, credit card, or apartment that requires a credit check, unlock your file first. Many people do this while sitting at the lender’s office or dealership: unlock, let the lender pull the report, then relock. Some bureaus also let you schedule a temporary lift for a specific window if you know when the check will happen.²

You only need to unlock at the bureau the lender actually pulls from. If you do not know which one they use, ask, or lift all three to avoid a delay.

A Lighter Option: Fraud Alerts

If a full lock feels like more than you need, a fraud alert is a step down. It does not block access to your report. Instead, it tells lenders to verify your identity before opening a new account in your name, typically by calling a phone number you provide.¹

Both types are free. An initial fraud alert lasts one year and can be renewed, and you only need to contact one bureau; that bureau notifies the other two. An extended fraud alert lasts seven years but requires an identity theft report filed with the FTC or a police report.

The tradeoff: a fraud alert relies on the lender to follow through on the verification step, while a lock or freeze prevents the lender from seeing your data in the first place.

Locking a Child’s or Dependent’s File

Children and incapacitated adults can also be identity theft targets, sometimes for years before anyone notices. Federal law lets a parent or guardian request a credit freeze on behalf of a child under 16 by providing proof of authority such as the child’s birth certificate, at each of the three bureaus.¹¹ It is free. If the child has no credit file yet, which is common, the bureau creates one solely to freeze it, and that file cannot be used for credit.

For a protected adult with a guardian or conservator, the representative typically needs identification for both themselves and the protected person, plus proof of authority such as a court order or valid power of attorney. Requirements vary by state, so contact each bureau for the specifics.

Canceling a Paid Lock

If you signed up for a paid lock subscription and decide it is not worth the cost, you can cancel and switch to a free freeze at the same bureau. The FTC’s click-to-cancel rule requires sellers of subscription services to make cancellation as simple as signup was, so you should not need a special phone number or a hard-to-find form to end the plan.¹² After canceling, place the free freeze to keep the same protection without the monthly charge.

1
FTC: Consumer Advice. Credit Freezes and Fraud Alerts
2
Experian. Freeze or Unfreeze Your Credit File for Free
3
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 U.S. Code 1681b – Permissible Purposes of Consumer Reports
4
FDIC.gov. VIII-6 Fair Credit Reporting Act
5
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. What Is a Credit Freeze or Security Freeze on My Credit Report
6
Federal Trade Commission. Starting Today, New Federal Law Allows Consumers to Place Free Credit Freezes and Yearlong Fraud Alerts
7
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 U.S. Code 1681c-1 – Identity Theft Prevention; Fraud Alerts and Active Duty Alerts
8
Equifax. Security Freeze – Freeze or Unfreeze Your Credit
9
Experian. Instantly Lock and Protect Your Experian Credit File With CreditLock
10
FTC: Consumer Advice. Free Credit Reports
11
Federal Trade Commission. New Protections Available for Minors Under 16
12
Federal Trade Commission. Federal Trade Commission Announces Final Click-to-Cancel Rule Making It Easier for Consumers to End Recurring Subscriptions and Memberships