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Child credit freeze

Why this process exists

When you first see this website, you might be thinking something like the following to yourself:

Wait… I have to freeze my kid’s credit?!? Why isn’t it done automatically?

You also might be thinking something like:

I have to mail in a bunch of documents?!? Why can’t I submit something online?

You’re not alone! Read more to learn why this process exists.

Your kid gets a Social Security number

When your child is born, your hospital submits paperwork to the Social Security Administration (SSA). Then, the SSA issues a Social Security Number (SSN) to your child.

This SSN is what your child will use to apply for credit in the future (and a host of other things).

Someone applies for credit

Once that SSN exists, someone can use it to apply for credit.

The problem - and why freezing credit is necessary - is the disconnect between the SSA and the credit bureaus. When someone applies for credit with an SSN, the only information that the credit bureau can get from the SSA is whether the number is valid. There’s no age associated with a SSN or any other information, just valid or not.

This disconnect is also why a credit bureau cannot proactively freeze your child’s credit. The SSA doesn’t advertise new numbers to them. They can only evaluate numbers in their system, which only happens once someone applies for credit or files a freeze request.

You file a freeze request

When you file a freeze request with a credit bureau, it’s actually a two step process:

  1. The credit bureau creates a credit report for your child (as mentioned before, they don’t have a report unless someone has applied for credit previously).
  2. The credit bureau places a freeze on that report.

The freeze then prevents any new lines credit from being opened for that SSN.

But credit bureaus don’t make it easy

Credit bureaus are legally required to let you freeze your child’s credit for free.

This means that they have no incentive to make this process easy. And they have ample incentive to make credit easy to apply for, because that’s how they make money from credit issuing bodies.

Hence the scattered information on their websites, the clunky process of sending in documents via the mail, and the lack of consumer awareness.