Nowadays with identity theft and financial security at the forefront of people’s minds more and more individuals are taking steps to freeze their credit as a means of protecting their information. While freezing your credit can be an important step in securing your information, there are reasons an individual may want their credit to be unfrozen. Generally, you would want to unfreeze your credit before any action that might require a credit check such as applying for loans or new credit cards, renting an apartment or taking out a mortgage, or even attaining access to certain kinds of accounts.
What are my options for unfreezing my credit?
So there are two options that an individual has for unfreezing their credit:
1) Unfreeze it for a period of time
2) Unfreeze it to allow access to a specific creditor
You might want to unfreeze your credit for a set time period if you are shopping around for something like a car loan or applying for a variety of credit cards. Since you will be requiring a number of credit checks over that period of time, you’ll need your information to be accessible to a number of different creditors. On the other hand, if you know exactly who you are applying from you can choose to allow access to a specific creditor. This will allow your information to be available to your new lender without giving access generally and still protecting you from thieves after your information.
Do I need to unfreeze my credit with all three credit bureaus?
Usually, yes. If you want your credit to be accessible to new lenders generally, you’ll need to individually unfreeze your credit with Experion, Equifax, and TransUnion. However, if you know the lender who will be seeking the credit check you can always ask what credit bureau they will use for the credit check and then simply request your credit to be unfrozen at that particular credit bureau.
How do you unfreeze your credit with TransUnion?
The first thing you want to do to unfreeze your credit with TransUnion is to make sure you have a password-protected TransUnion account. From there, you can unfreeze your credit for a set time period up to 30 days, indefinitely, or for specific creditors. If you choose to reverse your security freeze for specific lenders, you will be given an access code that you can then share with anyone who may need to access your credit report. TransUnion contact information for unfreezing your credit is listed here:
Website:
Phone Number:
888-909-8872
Mailing Address:
TransUnion LLC
P.O. Box 2000
Chester, PA 19016
How do you unfreeze your credit with Equifax?
Equifax also allows you to unfreeze your credit online by creating a “myEquifax” account on their website. You can then either permanently unfreeze your credit or create a temporary unfreezing up to a year. You can also unfreeze for specific creditors though this will be on a manual individual basis as opposed to a shared access code like is provided by TransUnion. Equifax contact information for unfreezing your credit is listed here:
Website:
Equifax.com/personal/credit-report-services
Phone Number:
800-685-1111
Mailing Address:
Equifax Security Freeze
P.O. Box 105788
Atlanta, GA 30348
How do you unfreeze your credit with Experian?
Unlike the other two major credit bureaus, Experian requires a PIN to unfreeze your credit still. This is likely the same PIN you used to freeze your credit with Experian in the first place. Experian provides more freedom than the other two credit bureaus with temporary unfreezes offering no maximum length of time to undo your security freeze (those it does warn that the dates cannot be changed once submitted). To unfreeze your credit for a specific creditor, Experian will provide you with a single-use PIN that you can then give the lender in order for them to have access to your credit report. Experian contact information for unfreezing your credit is listed here:
Website:
Phone Number:
888-397-3742
Mailing Address:
Experian Security Freeze
P.O. Box 9554
Allen, TX 75013
If you are wondering why you might want to initiate a credit or security freeze or are interesting in how to do so, check out our in-depth guide on how to freeze your credit here.