Additionally, each of the three credit bureaus offers you a way to “lock“ your credit report so that companies cannot perform hard credit inquiries. This can protect you from identity theft and can protect you from unscrupulous lenders performing credit checks on you, but it also means that you can’t apply for credit yourself unless you unlock your credit reports first. You should be able to sign up for an account at each of the three credit bureaus to lock your report without having to pay for an ongoing subscription, although they will certainly try to upsell you on more paid services.
There is also a government mandated function to “freeze“ your credit report. The difference between a lock and a freeze is too complicated to get into here, the credit bureaus will have FAQs on their websites to explain the difference. Either a freeze or lock will prevent hard inquiries to your account. Remember you have to lock or freeze all three of your credit reports to be effective.
