'Dad Put a Freeze on Mom's Credit.' Now That He’s Passed Away, How Do We Lift It?
A credit freeze lets you prevent anyone from accessing your credit report to open new accounts in your name. Some people opt to freeze their credit once they’ve been alerted of a data breach that exposed their personal information, while others do so as a preventative measure even if their data hasn’t been exposed.
There were a record number of data compromises in 2025, up 5% from the year before, according to the Identity Theft Resource Center. So it’s no surprise that people are looking for ways to protect themselves. But while a credit freeze is one of the best ways to do so, it can be problematic if you’re not able to easily lift that freeze.
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That’s the predicament a woman who recently posted in the subreddit r/personalfinance has found her mother in. The user's father froze her mother’s credit, but he passed away, and the daughter doesn’t know how to unfreeze her mother’s credit.
"Dad put a freeze on mom's credit. He died. No one can access her Experian online account. She doesn't even understand what a credit freeze means," she wrote. "I am merely trying to simplify all that I can for my mom."
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Expert advice: Contact the three major credit reporting agencies
When you freeze your credit, you do so with the three major credit reporting agencies: Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. To unfreeze your credit, you need to contact the three agencies as well.
Each agency has specific instructions on how to freeze or unfreeze credit, though typically you can do so easily online, or by calling or snail mail. Generally, you can unfreeze your credit indefinitely, or do so temporarily, which may come in handy for someone who needs to let lenders have access to their credit to open a new account.
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The agencies need to fulfill unfreeze requests made online or by phone within one hour, according to the USAGov, an official site of the U.S. General Services Administration. Requests to unfreeze by mail need to take place within three business days.
The user is in a more challenging situation, since she needs to unfreeze someone else’s account and doesn't have access to her mother’s login information for Experian. She can call the bureaus directly. The phone numbers listed to unfreeze credit are (888) 298-0045 for Equifax, (888) 397-3742 for Experian and (800) 916-8800 for TransUnion.
If these numbers bring her to an automated message system asking for her mother’s information that she doesn’t have access to, she may need to contact the agencies’ customer service numbers directly and ask to speak to a representative.
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