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Freeze Your Credit First: The Free Steps That Do More Than Any Subscription
Freezes at the three bureaus, free monitoring, and the two situations where a paid service earns its money.
August 28, 2026 · 4 min read
Do these today, free
- Freeze your credit at Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. Takes ten minutes online, lifts in minutes when you apply for credit. Freeze your children's too.
- Turn on free monitoring: Experian's free tier, your bank's alerts, and Have I Been Pwned for leaked passwords.
- Get your free reports weekly at AnnualCreditReport.com.
- Add two-factor to email, bank and phone-carrier accounts.
When paying makes sense
- You want money back and a person to fix it — stolen-funds insurance and restoration (Aura, LifeLock Ultimate Plus, Zander).
- You want your address off people-search sites (DeleteMe, or Aura's built-in removal).
When it does not
Paying $300 a year for one-bureau monitoring alone. The freeze does that job for nothing.
» See the full rankings: Best Identity Theft Protection Services of 2026, Best Credit Monitoring Services .