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I have placed credit freezes at all three agencies in the US. I have existing debt that I am paying on time, will the credit freeze stop that activity from being recorded and helping my credit score?

Dheer
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J. Ari
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1 Answers1

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No, freezing your credit will not freeze your score.

You are continuing to make payments and time continues to pass. If you have credit cards, your credit utilization continues to change as your balance goes up and down. All of these things factor into your score.

A credit freeze prevents new creditors from accessing your credit report, but it does not stop existing creditors from reporting new information.

Ben Miller
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    ... preventing your current creditors from being able to post new data wouldn't freeze your score either as all your existing accounts gradually aged out of the score. – Dan Is Fiddling By Firelight Oct 16 '17 at 13:18
  • A score that's not accessible is pretty useless though, isn't it? – Christian Oct 16 '17 at 14:38
  • @christian "prevents new creditors from accessing your credit report". I think that means YOU (the owner of the cc) can still access it. But i'm not sure –  Oct 16 '17 at 15:03
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    @Christian That's the point. You un-freeze when you need it to be accessible (applying for a loan, buying a car) and then re-freeze it after. Reduces your exposure. – ceejayoz Oct 16 '17 at 15:05
  • but what does the score matter while it's frozen, nobody cares if it changes or not – Christian Oct 16 '17 at 15:07
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    @Christian - If your score can improve while your credit is frozen you should care. – Logarr Oct 16 '17 at 15:11
  • @Christian if someone is applying for a loan who is not you, while your credit is frozen, because they have your information, they will be unable to do so, as the lender will tell them, "You have no credit". This prevents huge lines of credit from being opened in your name. – FuriousFolder Oct 16 '17 at 16:05
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    @Furious, the lender will be able to see that there is a freeze on the file, and will likely communicate that rather than "You have no credit". Same result, very different situations though. – economy Oct 16 '17 at 18:04
  • @Christian I think the issue is what happens to all the score-influencing activity during the period when it's frozen. – Barmar Oct 16 '17 at 18:04
  • @economy I was shopping for apartments 2 weeks ago. I was told by the person requesting the credit that, "You have no credit". I then unlocked my credit, and they were able to pull the report. Is it possible that different agencies report differently? – FuriousFolder Oct 16 '17 at 20:19
  • It's definitely possible. I have always been explicitly told to lift the freeze by employers / lenders, indicating they can actually see what's going on. Maybe they decided not to give you all the information by policy instead of ability? – economy Oct 16 '17 at 22:12