Why your credit freeze isn’t enough to stop identity theft

January 18, 2026

By Kim Komando

Roger in Denver wrote in with a question I hear all the time:

“Kim, I took your advice and froze my credit. I had no idea there was a fourth credit bureau until you told me. If I did that, why would I need an ID protection service like NordProtect? I’ve seen the ads in The Current, and I’m confused.”

Roger, first off, good on you. Freezing your credit is one of the smartest moves you can make. It stops a ton of fraud before it ever starts.

If someone steals your credit card number, fixing it takes five minutes. You call, dispute the charge, get a new card. Done.

But if someone steals your identity? That cleanup can take 300+ hours. Weeks of phone calls. Paperwork. Frozen accounts. Stress. And it usually gets that bad because the fraud wasn’t caught early.

🥶 What freezes do well and what they don’t

So we’re all on the same page, a credit freeze blocks lenders from pulling your credit to open new accounts. That’s huge. It stops new credit cards, auto loans, mortgages opened in your name. 

What it doesn’t do is alert you when something shady is happening. Identity theft rarely starts with a big, obvious move. Criminals test the waters.

• They apply for short-term loans, say payday advances, that don’t always check traditional credit.
• They open bank accounts using your info.
• They change contact details on your accounts, so alerts never reach you.
• They run a single hard inquiry to see if your data still works.

A freeze won’t tell you when any of that is going on.

(By the way, if you want a refresher on the credit freezes people miss, including that fourth bureau, this guide on my site explains it clearly.)

👍 How ID theft protection earns its keep

This is where services like NordProtect come in. Think of it as the layer that watches what freezes can’t.

Good protection monitors all major credit bureaus, watches for short-term loan attempts, flags suspicious bank account activity and pings you when your personal info is being used somewhere it shouldn’t be.

If something does slip through, these services help you navigate the disputes, the paperwork, the “please hold” purgatory. Some include insurance to help cover losses.

Roger, the marketing around this stuff is messy. Protection works best in layers.

• Freezes reduce the risk.
• Monitoring catches trouble early.
• Recovery support saves your time and sanity when things go sideways.

If you’ve already frozen your credit, you’re ahead of most people. Identity theft protection helps make sure you stay ahead.

I had LifeLock for years. Then it got expensive, like, really expensive. So I did what I tell you to do. I shopped around. NordProtect does everything I need for $4.74 a month. I switched and haven’t looked back.

Would I sleep without identity theft protection? Absolutely not. Maybe I know too much.

✅ Try NordProtect at 66% off. I get nothing if you sign up, just want you protected. And if you don’t love it, there’s a 30-day money-back guarantee.

Know someone who thinks a credit freeze is all they need? Forward this their way. It might save them 300 hours of headaches down the road.