Is It Safe To Unfreeze My Credit To Apply for a Credit Card?

“Freeze your credit” is money expert Clark Howard’s constant answer to preventing identity theft and financial fraud. It’s not foolproof, but it’s an easy, wide-reaching way to protect your credit.

But what happens if you need to apply for a credit card, an auto loan or some other thing that requires you to temporarily thaw or unfreeze your credit? Is it safe to do so, especially if your Social Security number, email and personal information have been found on the dark web?

That’s what a listener of the Clark Howard Podcast recently asked.

Can I Safely Unfreeze My Credit To Apply for a Credit Card?

I’ve dealt with identity theft in the past and froze my credit. But now I need to apply for a credit card. Is it safe for me to unfreeze my credit at all, even temporarily?

That’s what a listener asked on the Aug. 1 podcast episode.

Asked Lisa in Nevada: “My husband and I have one debit card and one credit card. After listening to Clark, we realize that we need to have a second credit card and limit the use of our debit card.

“We have excellent credit and qualifying for a card is not the problem. The issue is that we have recently been victims of significant identity theft. Our credit is frozen and we are nervous about unfreezing our credit to apply for a card.

“What would you suggest as the quickest, most secure way to apply for a credit card? Is there a credit card that you would recommend that is easier to obtain?”

Unfreezing your credit isn’t infallible. But the risk is small enough that Clark feels comfortable with you doing so for 24 hours if you need something.

“When you do a credit thaw, when you temporarily unfreeze your credit, you can do it for one day,” Clark says.

“The odds that a criminal is sitting there waiting to pounce in a 24-hour period after you’ve been through an identity breech is very, very low. So you can feel comfortable doing a credit thaw for a day.”

Note that you’ll need to unfreeze your credit at all three major credit bureaus. That’s Experian, Equifax and TransUnion. That’s because you don’t know which credit bureau your credit card issuer is going to pull your report from.

“When you go to lift to freeze, they’ll ask, ‘Is it permanent? Is it temporary? How long do you want it?’ You just say one day or two days, whatever it is,” Clark says.

Credit Karma Can Benefit You Twice in This Situation

Clark is a big fan of Credit Karma. It offers free credit monitoring and earns money by referring you to credit cards and other financial products.

If you’re only lifting your credit freeze for one or two days, you may want confidence that you’re going to get approved for the credit card for which you’re applying.

“Credit Karma will do an analysis and they will put up a list for you of cards that your chances of approval are excellent, very good, good, fair, whatever,” Clark says.

“And so if you like any of those cards, you’d be able to apply for them knowing that the odds of approval if it says excellent or very good are overwhelmingly positive for you.”

Worried that a crook is going to take advantage of your credit, even during the small window in which you unfreeze it? Credit Karma is great for monitoring.

“The beauty of having Credit Karma, which will stay in place even after the freeze goes back into effect, [is that] you’ll be able to monitor your credit, check your score regularly, do all those things even with your credit frozen once the account is established,” Clark says. “And Credit Karma is free.”

Final Thoughts

If you’ve frozen your credit, you’re on the right track in terms of protecting your wallet.

It can be uncomfortable to unfreeze or thaw your credit. Especially if you’ve dealt with identity theft or a large number of data breaches where your information has gotten exposed.

However, temporarily thawing your credit for a day or two to apply for a new line of credit is low risk. Clark says it’s fine. You can also use a free credit monitoring service such as Credit Karma just to be sure no one does anything nefarious during that window.