25 Jul I forgot to unfreeze my credit report. What happens now?

Q. I had put a freeze on my credit reports, which I sort of forgot about. And then I applied for a car loan but I didn’t get it at first because of the freeze. Will this be a problem for my credit score?
— Borrower-to-be

A. Not at all.

Let’s first review what a credit freeze is.

It limits access to the information on your credit report, which as you know, is what potential lenders will try to access to see what kind of a risk you are as a borrower.

When you freeze your reports, any inquiries are immediately rejected.

It’s not a rejection of you as a borrower because of your history, but a rejection to the lender that’s trying to see your information.

When you want to apply for credit, you can get a temporary lift of the freeze.

When you place the freeze, you would have received a PIN from the credit bureaus, and you can use that to unlock your report.

You can also ask the lender which of the three credit agencies it will use to confirm your creditworthiness. You would then only need to remove the freeze on that one credit agency.

To place or lift a credit freeze, you can contact the three major credit bureaus directly:

Experian: (888) 397-3742
Equifax: (800) 349-9960
TransUnion: (888) 909-8872

Email your questions to .

This story was originally published on July 25, 2023.

NJMoneyHelp.com presents certain general financial planning principles and advice, but should never be viewed as a substitute for obtaining advice from a personal professional advisor who understands your unique individual circumstances.