You should probably freeze your credit.

It’s important to protect your financial well-being. This month, we’re focusing on a powerful tool: the credit freeze.

A credit freeze is a simple but effective way to prevent identity thieves from opening new accounts in your name. Here’s how it works: it stops new creditors from accessing your credit report. If they can’t check your credit, they can’t approve new credit cards or loans, so fraudulent attempts to open new credit in your name are stopped in their tracks.

While a credit freeze is a great protective measure, it’s not for everyone at all times. It works by stopping all attempts to open new credit, so if you’re planning to apply for a mortgage, car loan, or rent a new apartment soon, you’ll need your credit to be accessible and you should wait. However, if you don’t anticipate needing credit in the near future, freezing your credit is a straightforward process.

The key things to know are that it’s free, it won’t negatively impact your credit score, and you can easily freeze and unfreeze your credit as needed. We have more details here to help you better understand the process and how to do it.