How to Freeze Your Family's Credit for Free (Including the Kids)
Stolen details are only worth something if a crook can open credit with them. Take that option away.
What happened
This month's headlines are full of AI agents breaking into websites in bulk and for small money. Nobody can promise your details weren't on one of them, or on any of the many older breaches. The practical move is to make those details less useful to a thief.
A credit freeze does that. The FTC explains that it stops the credit bureaus from sharing your report with new lenders, so a crook can't easily open a card or loan in your name. Under federal law it's free at all three bureaus, it doesn't touch your credit score, and you can lift it temporarily when you apply for something yourself.
Children count too. Since 2018, parents and guardians can freeze credit for kids under 16, and a child's clean record is exactly what identity thieves like, because nobody checks it for years.
What to do
- Freeze at all three bureaus. Equifax, Experian and TransUnion each have a free freeze page. Doing one isn't enough; lenders may check any of them.
- Save the login or PIN. Store each bureau's account details in your password manager. You'll need them to lift the freeze when you apply for a loan, card or apartment.
- Do the kids. For children under 16, a parent or guardian requests the freeze from each bureau, usually by mail or online with proof of identity. The FTC's identity theft pages walk through it.
- Offer to help a loved one. Sit with a parent or relative and do theirs together. Twenty minutes, side by side, beats a reminder they'll get to someday.
- Add the family rules. Agree on a family safe word for emergency calls (see our safe word guide), and a rule that nobody installs anything a pop-up or caller tells them to.
The prompt
Help me plan an evening to freeze my family's credit. The people are: [e.g. me, my spouse, two kids aged 9 and 14, and my mother]. For each person, make a checklist: which three credit bureaus to contact, what kinds of documents a freeze request usually asks for, and how a parent or guardian handles it for a child. Then give me a simple table to track which freezes are done and where each PIN or login is saved. Tell me to confirm every step on each bureau's own website. Don't ask me for Social Security numbers or any personal identifiers, and remind me not to type them here.
Go to the bureaus' sites by typing the address yourself or from the FTC's page, not from an ad or a search result.
Where it still needs a grown-up
- A freeze doesn't stop someone using a card you already have, or a scam you fall for directly. Keep checking statements.
- Remember to lift the freeze before you apply for credit, then put it back. Losing the PIN means a slower trip through the bureau's identity checks.
- Strip personal identifiers before pasting anything into a chatbot. If your identity is already being misused, IdentityTheft.gov gives a recovery plan; for anything legal or financial that's tangled, get a real professional.
The verdict
Free, reversible, and the closest thing to a deadbolt on your identity.