Your credit report lists your cards, loans and payments. Identity thieves use stolen SSNs to open accounts, and newcomers are a frequent target. These free tools protect you.
The only official free site is annualcreditreport.com. You can get a free report from each of the three bureaus (Equifax, Experian, TransUnion) every week.
Open annualcreditreport.com.
Tap Request your free credit reports.
Enter your name, address, date of birth and SSN.
Answer security questions. They may ask about loans; with a new file, answer "none of the above" when true.
Read each report. Check your name, addresses and every account.
Other sites that say "free credit report" often sell something. A report is not the same as a score; many bank and card apps show a free score.
A freeze blocks lenders from seeing your file, so no one can open new credit in your name. It is free by law, does not hurt your score, and your current cards keep working.
Go to each bureau's website (Equifax, Experian and TransUnion). You must freeze at all three.
Create an account and choose Freeze (or "security freeze").
Save the login or PIN each bureau gives you.
When you apply for a card, a loan, an apartment or a phone plan, unfreeze ("lift") for a day or two, then freeze again.
A fraud alert asks lenders to check that it is really you before opening credit. Contact one bureau and it tells the other two.
Initial fraud alert: lasts 1 year. Free.
Extended fraud alert: lasts 7 years, for victims of identity theft with a report from IdentityTheft.gov or the police.
If you see an account you did not open
Go to IdentityTheft.gov and follow the recovery plan.
Dispute the wrong information with the bureau that shows it.
Freeze your credit at all three bureaus.
Sharing your SSN by phone with a caller who says they are a government office. Agencies do not call to ask for it.
Forgetting to lift a freeze before an apartment application, which then gets delayed.