My advice: Freeze your credit files by phone, not online. Here's a guide. (2024)

An hour and 15 minutes, vs. 3 minutes.

How much time would you like to spend freezing one of your credit files with one of the major credit bureaus?

When I froze the TransUnion credit file for someone in my household one day late last week, it took about 75 minutes online. Thank goodness I had the Indians game on as a distraction so I didn't feel like the time was a total waste. I was ready to tear my hair out. At one point, I thought TransUnion's web site was broken because it stalled for so long. But I persevered and got it done.

To my delight, when I froze the file for another family member through TransUnion -- this time by phone -- it took 3 minutes. Three amazingly quick minutes.

Wow. After placing real freezes for real people through all four of the major credit bureaus, I'm recommending that folks freeze their files by phone, not online. Repeat: While it's easier to freeze your files online today than it was in the first few days after news of the Equifax breach broke three weeks ago, it still generally takes much longer to do it online and there are many more landmines to avoid online, such as unwanted subscription services, lengthy terms of use and unwelcome sales pitches.

Normally, I'm an online type of gal. I'm far from a millennial, but I'm quite comfortable in the tech world for shopping, banking, communications, etc.

But in the case of credit freezes, forget online. It's a horror show. By contrast, doing it by phone is easy, if you just pay close attention for the few minutes it takes to complete each call.

If you want to pump yourself up, do your freeze with Innovis first. Even though Innovis is the smallest and least-known of the credit bureaus, it was the easiest. A freeze through Innovis can be done quickly, simply and free online in less than two minutes by going to

Or you can call Innovis at 1-800-540-2505.

I'm going to walk you through some things to expect with the other three, Equifax, TransUnion and Experian, if you freeze your file by phone or online.

Before you embark on your freeze journey, you should make sure you are ready to provide:

• Your full name
• Your current address
• Your Social Security number
• Your date of birth (numerically, i.e. July 2, 1960 is 07/02/1960).
• Your credit card to use for payment for TransUnion and Experian.
• A six-digit PIN. Think of this ahead of time. For now, TransUnion requires you to generate your own six-digit PIN. Don't make it something like your birthdate or any part of your SSN or phone number or address.

If you're doing your freeze online, you also need to be prepared to provide answers to some security questions. The questions are multiple choice. Typical questions are the bank where you most recently had a mortgage or car loan, the name of a street you lived on in the past or the amount of a mortgage or car payment, often lumped in ranges of $50 or $100. So if you had a car payment of $204, it might ask you the amount of your payment: $100-$149, $150-$199, $200-249, $250-$299, or none of the above.

Be prepared for those "None of the above" responses. When I registered one family member, the security question said: "According to your credit profile, you may have opened an auto loan in or around May 2016. Please select the lender for this account. If you do not have such an auto loan, select None of the Above/ Does Not Apply."

In this case, there hadn't been an auto loan in years, much less one opened last year. So the answer was "None of the Above."

Another reason to choose the phone option over online: The web sites seem to be quick to tell you your information can't be verified and then reject your request, which forces you to do it by phone or mail.

EQUIFAX

Freezes are free through Nov. 21. Normally, the bureau charges $5 in some states including Ohio, $10 in others. Why? Because they're allowed to charge you for the privilege of prohibiting a thief from opening a loan or credit card in your name.

Equifax by phone:

Manageable by phone by calling Equifax at 800-685-1111. I did it in about 9 minutes. I think it's quicker this week, after the initial swarm of consumers who were freezing their files.

An upside of Equfax's phone service: You can speak your answers or punch them in on your telephone keypad. The downside: You can't multi-task or have background noise. The computer voice gets impatient if he has to wait or if he thinks you said something you didn't say.

A warning: Make sure you have a pen and paper handy to write down the 10-digit PIN when it's blurted out of nowhere at the end of your phone call.

Equifax online:

The only two obstacles: First, Equifax forces you to enter a kaptcha word -- you know those squiggly letters/numbers. It's not comforting to think bad guys may be using robots to try to punch through Equifax's system with a computerized assault.

Second, Equifax's web site,

https://www.freeze.equifax.com/Freeze/jsp/SFF_PersonalIDInfo.jsp, has been intermittently impossible to get to. There's been so much activity -- let's hope most of it good -- that the site has frequently crashed from the overload. Again, I think it's easier to freeze your file online than it was two to three weeks ago.

TRANSUNION

Charges $5 in some states including Ohio, anywhere from nothing to $10 in others.

TransUnion by phone:

Interestingly, if you call TransUnion's security freeze phone number, 888-909-8872, it first encourages you to go to its web site. And it gives you the web site that I've compared to a house of mirrors -- you think you're getting to the right door and you end up back at the beginning.

Anyway, by phone, freezing another relative's file took literally 3 minutes. It was so easy I was almost thought something must be wrong. But we entered a credit card number for the $5 charge, entered the chosen six-digit PIN and sure enough, the $5 charge hit the credit card as a pending transaction within minutes.

Doing it by phone, you don't have to try to figure out whether you wanted a freeze or a lock, the latter which TransUnion tries to push on you big time. You don't have to get the hard-sell for TransUnion's $19.95 per month service. You don't have to provide an email. It was bliss.

There is this word of warning: Have all of your information ready! Have your six-digit PIN that you're creating ready. Have your credit card next to your computer. When enrolling one person, in the time it took for him to take the credit card out of his wallet (like 4 seconds), TransUnion's computer got impatient that the credit card number hadn't been entered and tried to transfer us over to a customer service representative. That didn't sound like a good option. We hung up and called back.

TransUnion online:

The nightmare of nightmares. First, TransUnion is fiercely trying to steer people to credit "locks" instead of credit "freezes." They are not the same thing. Not to say that a credit lock is necessarily horrible, but it's not a freeze. If you want a freeze, you really need to pack your patience and caffeinate so that you don't give up.

If you go to TransUnion's security freeze page, you have to keep clicking through to get past all of the other mumbo-jumbo: Tips about being careful, monitoring your accounts and setting up fraud alerts. Yes, those are important, but they're not freezes. "Be aware, a credit freeze may require a payment of a fee as well as a waiting period when you want to unfreeze it to apply for credit in the future." (Puh-leeze. The waiting period is anywhere from 15 minutes to 24 hours.) Anyway, to freeze your file, you have to keep clicking past its begging and pleading for your to sign up for a lock instead.

To bypass TransUnion's nonsense online, you can go to:

(But I'd call the toll-free number at 888-909-8872 to save your sanity.)

Eventually, I got the file frozen through TransUnion. It took about 1 hour and 15 minutes online, vs three for another relative by phone.

The biggest problem I have with TransUnion is it seems to be capitalizing on this disaster by trying to rope people into a subscription service that costs $19.95 a month. You can think you're signing up for a $5 freeze and end up with a paid service that's going to smack your credit card for $19.95 every month. I've talked to numerous people -- smart, savvy people -- who've been suckered by this.

TransUnion also is trying to trick or scare people into signing up for the credit locks instead of freezes. Perhaps TransUnion prefers locks over freezes because freezes are regulated and locks aren't. Perhaps TransUnion pushes locks because TransUnion can try to force you into arbitration if you sign up for a lock instead of a freeze. Perhaps TransUnion wants your email address so they can pepper you with solicitations to buy credit scores and credit monitoring and so on. I don't know. But the hard-sell is pretty obnoxious as TransUnion tries to make a freeze sound scary and make a lock sound fantastic.

Oh, and once you successfully sign up for your security freeze, you're sent 2,430 words of TransUnion's "terms of use" and "TransUnion service agreement" for the security freeze.

To be sure: A freeze may not be for everyone. If you're someone who applies for a lot of credit cards or insurance or loans, or if you're someone who frequently needs a background check for your job, then a freeze could be costly and time-consuming because you'll have to pay and request temporary unfreezes. But for most people, a freeze is what you want.

EXPERIAN

Charges $5 in some states including Ohio, anywhere from nothing to $10 in others.

Experian by phone:

Freezing your credit by phone at 888-397-3742 is more cumbersome than with the other bureaus but is still pretty easy, if you just pay attention and don't try to multi-task. You really need to listen to the prompts because it gives you lots of choices that can confuse you. Sometimes you need to enter the pound key (#) after your entry. Sometimes you don't. Just pay attention.

Right out of the gate, it asks whether you're calling about the Equifax security breach. It quickly says Equifax is a different company and gives you a phone number to call. It also gives you an option to go online. It also gives you an option that, if you're a victim of identity theft, you can upload documents to get your freeze at no charge.

Just keep in mind you're listening for the magic words: "add a freeze" or "place a freeze."

The oddity with Experian's phone service is that, unlike TransUnion's computer, which is super impatient, Experian goes through things methodically. It repeats back everything: your SSN, your date of birth, your credit card number, etc. Almost comically, it reads through a list of every single state, plus Washington D.C. and Puerto Rico, and the fee charged for residents in each. I already knew it was $5 in Ohio, but thanks. Because of all of the repeated information and list of states, Experian's freeze took nearly 6 minutes. Still pretty painless.

Experian online:

It's fairly easy to do online, https://www.experian.com/freeze/center.html assuming you can think quick on your feet and are familiar with your residential and financial history. It does ask security questions to access your file (bank holding your mortgage, bank holding your car loan, past address street and past address city).

HOW TO FREEZE YOUR CREDIT FILES

To freeze your credit reports for potential new creditors (Note that you will receive a confirmation and PIN by mail):

By phone:

Equifax: 800-685-1111

TransUnion: 888-909-8872

Experian: 888-397-3742.

Innovis: 1-800-540-2505

Online:

By mail:

Write a short note that you're requesting a security freeze and include your full name with middle initial and Sr., Jr., etc., address, Social Security number, date of birth and previous addresses for the last two years. Mail your request (through certified mail if you'd like) to:

Equifax Security Freeze

PO 105788
Atlanta, GA 30348

Innovis Consumer Assistance

PO Box 26
Pittsburgh, PA 15230-0026

For TransUnion and Experian, you'll also need to enclose a check for $5.

TransUnion
Fraud Victim Assistance Department
P.O. Box 2000
Chester PA 19016

Experian Security Freeze
P.O. Box 9554
Allen, TX 75013