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Transunion is charging to place a credit freeze on your file. The charges to add, lift, or remove a credit freeze vary by state and can be found here. Some states even have differing charges based on your age. Here’s an idea. Make them free…But if they were free, it would hurt TransUnion’s business model.  We wouldn’t want to hurt a credit reporting agency’s business model in an effort to help consumers against fraud, would we?

Okay, so this doesn’t improve your score directly, but there are benefits. Freezing your credit report with Experian will keep your Experian score from going down due to hard inquiries when applying for credit.

So, you want to apply for some credit cards, or otherwise initiate a bunch of hard pulls on your credit report, but are worried about the consequences of hard inquiries staying on your credit report or a dip on your FICO score. You already know about bumpage, accelerated bumpage, and choppage, so you’re not too worried about your Equifax or Transunion scores being hurt. What about your Experian score? (Remember, bumpage doesn’t work with Experian.) Just freeze your credit report with Experian. The hard pull that would otherwise be on Experian will likely redirected to a different credit reporting agency (CRA) – either Transunion or Equifax. The risk being run is that the institution trying to pull the Experian report will decide not to pull from a CRA, and a denial letter will be sent. I’m not too worried about getting denied credit – if my score stays in tact. Don’t forget, if you really want to, you can “thaw” your credit report temporarily, or remove the freeze altogether.

Clark Howard has a good guide on freezing your credit report with links to the various CRA’s websites. The cost is $3-$10 per bureau to freeze, and a cost to thaw per bureau of $0-$10.