Freeze or lock credit? What's the difference?

I would go to their FAQs and see what the difference is for their company.

You can place a fraud alert, which is only good up to a year. In that case, the lender is supposed to call you at the number you have provided to confirm it is you. You can renew it after the year is up. If you place a fraud alert with one credit bureau, they are required to inform the other 2 and then those 2 must also place the fraud alert.

A credit freeze does not allow anyone to run your credit at all. You would need to remove it if you were applying for a loan or credit. You have to do these individually with each credit bureau.

Very easy. I usually do it online. It's quick and allows you to set the time frame that it is unlocked. If I know when I'm having something run (last time was for a car loan), I will unlock the credit for just 24 hours. As soon as I have approval I go back to my account and relock it. Whole process takes maybe 5 minutes. Also, when we did the car loan they told us which credit bureau they would use so I only had to unlock the one. Always pays to ask!

I have a freeze on my credit, DH's credit (done years ago) and I just did DS's credit. It's easy and to unlock it is easy too. If someone needs to run your credit, you ask them which bureau do they use and unlock it they run it then you lock it again. Why do I have my credit frozen?

Years ago, we had a new head of security at work. He came from Air Force intelligence, he also worked for the NSA. He did a presentation on cyber security. And he said "every one's information is on the dark web, don't kid yourself that it's not". He said the best thing you can do to protect yourself if freeze your credit. It's a numbers game for these criminals. If you make it even a little bit hard, they move on to the next person. I went home and did mine and DH's.

Cut to this May and I got several notices in the mail from various banks/CC companies saying: I'm sorry we can't complete your CC application b/c your credit is frozen at Trans Union/Experian/Equifax (they listed whichever one they used). Yep, finally happened. So I started calling these banks/companies telling them it was a fraudulent application. Spent hours on the phone. All in all, I had about 15 different applications I had to call about. Every single person in the fraud departments said the best thing someone can do is freeze their credit with all 3 bureaus. After all the phone calls I went out and made sure that DS's credit is frozen too. I explained to him why I was doing it and when he needed credit, I'd show him how to unlock and relock it.

I cannot stress this enough: FREEZE YOUR CREDIT!!!! Tell everyone you know to FREEZE THEIR CREDIT!

Do you have to create an account and password at each credit agency? I need to put this on my to do list.

I'd rather spend the time on the phone than the alternative of all of a sudden having all these fraud credit cards along with the fraud charges.  Several of the people I spoke to in the fraud departments said that criminals will open a card and before the person knows this happened the card has already hit the limit and they move to the next card.  It's a numbers game for them.  Whoever did this even tried to apply for credit at a Cadillac dealer in Texas.  I'm like "uh, I'm in Massachusetts".  But thankfully, they couldn't get anywhere.