Report Freeze Benefits Other Than Anti-Fraud? Downsides?

[Jazee]

My understanding that freezing your credit reports helps protect against fraudulent accounts being opened after identity theft.

Wouldn't this also prevent lenders from sending you pre-qualifications offers?

I notice that some banks to a soft pull periodically because you have a credit account already with them. Some banks may change terms or close the account due to drop in score. I would expect the freeze/lock doesn't prevent banks you have existing accounts with from doing this?

Other benefits or downsides other than the inconvenience of having to remember to unlock when you apply for anything requiring a credit check.  Does this just prevent had pulls and not soft pulls?

[SirMilo]

@Jazee ,

I'm pretty sure that nobody has responded since it appears that you have a very good understanding of what happens when reports are frozen. I cannot add to or correct anything you've said since you've pretty much answered all of your own questions.

As far as i'm concerned, there are no downsides other than thawing reports before an application. Since I've apped for only a single card in the last 14 months, there is no downside for me. I suppose if one enjoys app sprees every 6-12 months, freezes could get annoying. If your (not you specifically) credit is dicey, maybe receiving prequalifying offers is a good thing but I already get more than enough unsolicited garbage.

Having been a victim of ID theft, any inconvenience of frozen reports is far outweighed by the nightmare that follows leaving them unfrozen. 

[Yankee2]

+1

I currently have mine locked since I don't have any need to apply for anything. When I have it's a pretty simple process to unfreeze and refreeze.

By not freezing I look at it like not locking your door to your house..... Probably nobody will try to go in even though they might know it's unlocked, but why take the chance when it's easy to flip the lock..

[Jazee]

But does it prevent lenders you have accounts with from doing a soft pull to determine if they want to raise or lower your limits?

[805orbust]

No. Any lender with whom you have an account can soft pull you at anytime, even if your reports are frozen.

[FinStar]

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@805orbust wrote:

No. Any lender with whom you have an account can soft pull you at anytime, even if your reports are frozen.

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Actually, there's a variety of lenders who would require thawing CRs for CLI requests.  SYNCB and USBank (who may HP when SP CLI isn't available) are a couple that I can think of.  They can typically SP for periodic ARs, but folks have reported DPs where thawing was needed.