We’ve been living with credit freezes for over 10 years now, ever since a bunch of fraud incidents (thanks leaky IRS). Only ever have to deal with it when we need credit (rarely), putting in for a temporary lift. Bonus is we get zero refinance or CC offers in the mail.

Everyone should freeze their credit by default, it's very easy to unfreeze when you actually need to apply for something.

I did that years ago and I've passed multiple hard credit checks. It doesn't do anything.

Ideally, that would be the default state, and you'd request un unlock when you need to borrow money.

I recently had someone submit a fraudulent loan application using my information. I went through the process of freezing immediately after, and I would highly recommend you do it. It was the easiest thing possible. I just went to the links on here https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/finance/how-to-freeze-cre... and was done in like 10 minutes for all 3.

I applied for a credit card recently and got denied, which was weird since I have a good credit score. Applied for a different one, they eventually emailed and asked if I still wanted the card. When I said I did, they told me they needed me to unfreeze one of my credit reports. I had forgotten I did it years ago. Oops. I eventually got a snail mail from the first credit card company telling me that was why it was denied and to unfreeze it if I still wanted the card.

I'm in my mid 30s at this point. Starting on my 18th birthday I've never been allowed to see my credit record from at least one bureau. Any attempt to do so is met with a requirement to prove my identity, and any attempt to prove my identity is responded to with a request for further documentation.