Freezing all the bureaus, including the ones nobody mentions

The standard advice stops at three: freeze Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. That covers most credit cards, auto loans and mortgages. It doesn’t cover the report a bank checks before opening a checking account in your name, the one a phone carrier may check before handing over a new line, or the fourth credit bureau most people have never heard of.

None of these companies talks to the others about freezes. Each one is a separate request, a separate PIN or login, and a separate lift when you need credit. Doing all seven takes one sitting if you have your Social Security number, addresses for the past two years, and a password manager open.

The seven freezes, with each company’s own contact details

The links, phone numbers and mailing addresses below were checked on October 11, 2026. Freeze pages move. If one fails, type the company’s home page address yourself instead of searching, because search ads for “credit freeze” often lead to paid lock or monitoring signups.

Mail requests take the most paperwork. Experian wants your full name, Social Security number, date of birth, addresses for the past two years, a copy of a government ID, and a utility bill or bank statement. Equifax’s mail form asks for one document showing your SSN (such as a W-2 or pay stub) and one showing your current address. Innovis mails a confirmation letter with a 10-digit freeze PIN. ChexSystems sends its PIN by mail or to its online portal, and you’ll need it for any later lift. ChexSystems’ phone representatives work 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. Central, Monday through Friday.

One more company sometimes comes up: Early Warning Services, which keeps bank and deposit account data that banks check when you open an account. The Early Warning consumer pages we reviewed describe how to request your file (800-745-1560) but not a security freeze, so there’s no eighth freeze to place there as of this writing.

Why the big three and the rest play by different rules

Federal law guarantees a free freeze, placed within one business day of an online or phone request and lifted within one hour, at the nationwide consumer reporting agencies (15 U.S.C. 1681c-1(i)). The statute ties that duty to agencies described in 15 U.S.C. 1681a(p), the nationwide credit bureaus. Equifax, Experian and TransUnion are squarely covered.

The specialty companies run their own freeze programs, and their pages describe them differently:

• NCTUE says its freeze is free, and that temporary lifts and removals cost nothing.
• LexisNexis says it places and lifts freezes free of charge.
• ChexSystems’ freeze page doesn’t mention a fee.
• Innovis’s freeze page doesn’t mention a fee either.

The one-hour lift rule is a big-three rule too. ChexSystems, Innovis and LexisNexis publish no processing time on their freeze pages; ChexSystems and LexisNexis say they’ll confirm by mail. Plan specialty-report lifts a few days ahead if you can.

Which freeze to lift for which application

A freeze only causes friction when a business needs the report you’ve frozen. The fix is to ask before you apply, then lift that one company for a short window.

The last row trips people up. The freeze statute lists employment, tenant and background screening, along with insurance underwriting, as uses a big-three freeze doesn’t block. So a landlord’s screening company can still get a report. That’s another reason to understand the specialty reports that feed those decisions.

A worked example: one week, two applications

Say you’ve frozen all seven, and next week you plan to open a checking account at a credit union on Tuesday and switch phone carriers on Thursday.

1. Monday: call the credit union and ask which screening report it pulls. It says ChexSystems. Log in to the ChexSystems consumer portal with your PIN and request a temporary lift covering Tuesday and Wednesday.
2. Monday: ask the phone carrier the same question. It says it checks NCTUE and one credit bureau, but won’t say which bureau in advance. Schedule an NCTUE lift for Thursday. Lift the three credit bureaus for Thursday only; online lifts at those three take effect within an hour under the statute.
3. Thursday night: the temporary windows expire and every freeze is back on. You never removed any freeze permanently.

Count the actions: one lift at ChexSystems, one at NCTUE, three at the bureaus, for five lifts. If the carrier had named its bureau, it would have been three. That’s why the phone call comes first.

Freezes for children and other protected consumers

Parents and guardians can freeze a child’s file before anyone misuses it. Under 15 U.S.C. 1681c-1(j), a “protected consumer” is anyone under 16 when the freeze is requested, plus incapacitated adults and people with a court-appointed guardian or conservator. If the child has no file, the bureau must create a record just to hold the freeze, and that record can’t be used to judge the child’s creditworthiness.

The process is usually by mail and needs more paperwork. TransUnion, for example, won’t take protected-consumer freezes online or by phone. It wants a written request mailed to P.O. Box 380, Woodlyn, PA 19094, with proof of your authority to act for the child and proof of identity for both of you. Check each company’s minor-freeze instructions before mailing.

Your setup checklist

1. Freeze Equifax, Experian and TransUnion first, online if you can. These carry the strongest legal protections and cover the most common fraud.
2. Freeze Innovis, NCTUE, ChexSystems and LexisNexis next, using the links in the table above.
3. Record each company’s PIN or login in a password manager, with the date you froze it. Seven PINs on sticky notes will not survive a move.
4. Pull your three main reports free at AnnualCreditReport.com to make sure nothing was opened before the freeze.
5. If you’re already a victim, pair the freezes with an extended fraud alert and an identity theft report. The differences are laid out in freeze vs. fraud alert vs. lock, and the full sequence is in identity theft recovery, step by step.
6. Before any application, ask which report the business checks and lift only that one. Glossary pages for Innovis and ChexSystems explain who uses those files.