 TITLE: What Is the Difference Between a Fraud Alert and a Credit Freeze? CONTENT: When to Unfreeze Your Credit\n----------------------------\nYou must unfreeze your credit file before applying for credit or other services that require access to your credit history, such as opening a new cellphone account or applying to renting an apartment. If you do not unfreeze your credit file before filing an application, the business will not be able to access your credit file or process your application.\nIf you have one or more credit applications pending, or if you plan to apply for new credit in the near future, consider postponing a security freeze. For lenders to process your credit application, you will need to unfreeze your credit report, either permanently or for a designated time period.\nIf you know which credit bureau or bureaus a lender will be using to check your credit, you can request from them a single-use PIN you'll provide to the lender to grant one-time access to your credit report. If you're shopping for the best lending terms you can get (as you always should when applying for loans or credit cards), it's virtually impossible to know which bureaus all your lenders will use, so the one-time PIN option isn't very practical. In that case, you're better off lifting your credit freezes at all three credit bureaus for a set time period—until at least two weeks after you send out your last application. END