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Nicole Dieker
Nicole Dieker has been a full-time freelance writer since 2012—and a personal finance enthusiast since 2004, when she graduated from college and, looking for financial guidance, found a battered copy of Your Money or Your Life at the public library. In addition to writing for Bankrate, her work has appeared on CreditCards.com, Vox, Lifehacker, Popular Science, The Penny Hoarder, The Simple Dollar and NBC News. Dieker spent five years as writer and editor for The Billfold, a personal finance blog where people had honest conversations about money. Dieker also teaches writing, freelancing and publishing classes and works one-on-one with authors as a developmental editor and copyeditor.
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Liza Carrasquillo
Liza Carrasquillo is an editor on the Bankrate credit cards team who focuses on providing accurate educational content to those at all stages of their credit card journey.
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When you place a credit freeze on an Experian, an Equifax or a TransUnion account, you used to be given a PIN to help you unfreeze your report later. But keeping track of that PIN — and keeping it safe — was not always easy for consumers, which is partly why they’re no longer necessary in most situations. If you were previously issued a PIN but lost it, you should still be able to unfreeze your credit without a problem.
The three major credit bureaus have changed their policies related to security freezes and PINs. As of 2018, those who are unfreezing their credit reports online through Equifax or TransUnion won’t need a PIN at all. They’ll only need to enter their account usernames and passwords. Experian followed suit a few years later by also introducing the ability to manage credit freezes via account login access instead of with a PIN.
You also won’t need a PIN if you’re unfreezing your reports over the phone or by mail.
Now that none of the three credit bureaus require a PIN to unfreeze your credit reports, the process for doing so is pretty straightforward. Here are the steps for each bureau:
The easiest and most common way to lift your credit freeze will be by going online. You can do so by following these steps:
You can also lift your credit freeze in the following ways:
Experian still provides PINs to consumers when they first sign up for their online accounts, but they don’t need them to freeze their credit. To freeze your credit online, follow these steps:
You can also navigate directly to the Experian Freeze Center and log into your account from there.
Like Equifax, you can also unfreeze your credit report over the phone or by mail. Here’s how:
Like Equifax, TransUnion allows you to create an online account through which you can freeze and unfreeze your credit (you can also download the myTransUnion mobile app). To unfreeze your credit report online, you simply have to:
To handle this process over the phone or by mail, follow these steps:
If you want to lift a credit freeze on your Equifax, Experian or TransUnion credit reports, you have two options: you can either create a temporary credit freeze lift, which removes the credit freeze for a limited amount of time, or you can thaw your credit permanently.
Many people choose to unfreeze their credit temporarily. This gives banks and lenders enough time to perform credit inquiries — which are essential steps in getting mortgages, car loans and credit cards — without leaving your credit report unfrozen for so long that it could fall into the wrong hands.
A temporary credit thaw also means you don’t have to worry about remembering to re-freeze your credit. After the designated time period ends, the credit bureau will automatically put a freeze back on your credit report. That way, you can unfreeze your credit for a few weeks and know that it will be securely frozen once the time limit is up.
Some people want a more permanent credit thaw. If you’re moving to a new city, for example, everyone from landlords to utility companies might want to check your credit history. This process could go on for a few months, so you might decide to unfreeze your credit long-term. Just remember to re-freeze your credit once you’re settled in.
Learn more: What it means when your bank wants you to unfreeze your creditNone of the three major credit bureaus require PINs to freeze or unfreeze credit reports anymore. If you didn’t get a PIN when you froze your credit report, you won’t get one when you go to unfreeze it. But if you call a credit bureau, however, a phone representative might ask to send you a one-time PIN in order to verify your identity.
To unfreeze your credit reports otherwise, it’s easiest to simply go online and do so through your account.
Arrow Right Contributor, Personal Finance
Nicole Dieker has been a full-time freelance writer since 2012—and a personal finance enthusiast since 2004, when she graduated from college and, looking for financial guidance, found a battered copy of Your Money or Your Life at the public library. In addition to writing for Bankrate, her work has appeared on CreditCards.com, Vox, Lifehacker, Popular Science, The Penny Hoarder, The Simple Dollar and NBC News. Dieker spent five years as writer and editor for The Billfold, a personal finance blog where people had honest conversations about money. Dieker also teaches writing, freelancing and publishing classes and works one-on-one with authors as a developmental editor and copyeditor.
Liza Carrasquillo is an editor on the Bankrate credit cards team who focuses on providing accurate educational content to those at all stages of their credit card journey.
