How to Freeze All Ten Specialty Reports Yourself — And What Actually Happens When You Try
Every agency on this list will freeze your file for free. You do not need us, or anyone else, to ask them. So before you pay a soul, here is the honest account of what happened when we mailed all ten ourselves — which ones cooperated, which ones demanded documents first, and which ones simply never wrote back.
The short version
We filed a security freeze and a report request with all ten specialty consumer reporting agencies, using our own personal file, and kept every envelope that came back. This is what the record looks like so far.
One more was returned by the post office from a correctly addressed envelope. And not one agency volunteered a copy of our report — because a freeze request and a report request are two entirely different transactions, which is the single most expensive thing most people never find out.
- None of this is difficult. There is no professional access, no secret, nothing you are locked out of.
- It is simply long. Print, copy, sign, address, stamp, wait, then answer whatever they write back demanding — times ten, over months rather than an afternoon.
- Most DIY attempts do not fail at the first letter. They fail at the fourth request for additional documentation, when people quietly stop.
The accounting, agency by agency
Filed October 2025. Round two went out 6–7 August 2026 — eight letters to the seven agencies that did not complete the job first time. Replies are expected from about the 20th, and this table is updated as they arrive.
| Agency | Outcome | What happened |
|---|---|---|
| Clarity Services | Complete | Processed the request and sent a copy of the report. The one that did the job properly. |
| ChexSystems | Smooth | Went through without a fight. Given how much rides on ChexSystems for a checking account, that matters. |
| Innovis | Cooperated | Responded and cooperated. |
| LexisNexis | In progress | Re-filed 6–7 August 2026. Awaiting reply. |
| CoreLogic Teletrack | Partial | Granted a prescreen opt-out — but only for five years, with a second form required to make it permanent. The separate request for the file was refused pending more documents. Re-filed 6–7 August 2026. |
| DataX | Refused pending docs | Nothing done until we sent a copy of the Social Security card and driver's licence. They will also accept a W‑2 or 1099 showing the full SSN. Re-filed 6–7 August 2026. |
| FactorTrust | Refused pending docs | No freeze placed. One document required from each of three categories, with the address document dated within the past 60 days. Re-filed 6–7 August 2026 — two letters, one for the freeze and one for the report, because they are separate requests. |
| SageStream | Returned by USPS | Came back undeliverable from a correctly addressed envelope — the address matches what both SageStream and the CFPB publish. Re-sent 6–7 August 2026. |
| MicroBilt / PRBC | No response | No freeze, no refusal, no acknowledgement. Re-sent 6–7 August 2026. |
| LCI | No response | Same — silence. Re-sent 6–7 August 2026. |
Freezes are free at every agency above. Federal law guarantees free freezes at Equifax, Experian and TransUnion; the specialty agencies provide them free under company policy and state law. Nobody on this page charges you for the freeze itself — including us.
The letters
These are the actual replies, scanned. Personal details are blacked out; nothing else has been altered.
A freeze is not your report
This is the part that costs people the most, and it is almost never explained.
Freezing your file tells an agency to stop handing your data to lenders, landlords, banks and insurers. It does not send you your file. What comes back from a freeze request — when anything comes back — is a confirmation letter and a PIN. Not one line of what they have actually been reporting about you.
Asking for your report is a separate request, at every one of these agencies. Its own form, its own identity requirements, frequently its own PO box. Here is the proof, from a single agency on a single day:
Which matters, because the freeze is defence and the report is diagnosis. A freeze stops the next surprise. The report tells you why you were already turned down — the closed-account record keeping you out of a checking account, the claim history quietly raising your insurance quote, the eviction filing that was dismissed but is still being reported.
We request both. Every agency, every time.
What they will ask you to mail
Most of these agencies want the same three things, and they will not tell you until after you have written to them once:
- A copy of your photo ID — driver's licence, passport or state ID
- A copy of your Social Security card, or a pay stub or W‑2 showing the full number
- A recent utility bill or statement showing your current address, often dated within the last 60 days
Some are particular in ways they do not advertise. MicroBilt rejects credit card statements, leases and voided cheques as proof of address — which is exactly what most people reach for first. And if you send the wrong one, they do not tell you promptly. They simply do not act until the right one arrives.
Decide for yourself how you feel about putting a copy of your Social Security card in the post to a PO box. We are not going to tell you it is nothing. It is worth doing carefully, and it is worth knowing about before you start rather than after.
So what would you be paying us for?
- Knowing what each one wants before they ask. The documents go out with the first letter, so the request does not come back demanding them.
- Ten separate processes, not one. Different forms, different rules, different addresses. Nothing carries over.
- The second round — the letters that come back incomplete, the ones that go silent, the ones that ask again for something already sent. This is where DIY attempts die.
- Your reports, requested alongside every freeze, because no agency volunteers them.
- The five-year clock on Teletrack, so the envelope that makes it permanent is not thrown out with the junk mail.
- One place to ask a question, instead of ten hold queues with ten sets of opening hours.
Want to do the mailing yourself? Our $49 package emails you a PDF containing all ten letters, written and ready. Print them, sign them, add your documents and post them. They are the same letters we send — you just do the licking and sticking.
Three ways to go about this, and all of them are legitimate. Do it free and entirely on your own, using the table above. Take the letters for $49 and mail them yourself. Or hand it over, and we file the freezes and the report requests and send you what comes back.
This page is a live record
On 6–7 August 2026 we posted eight more letters, covering every agency that did not finish the job the first time. Round one took about two weeks to come back, so replies should start landing around the 20th. As they arrive — or fail to — the table above is updated and the letters are added here.
If you are working through this yourself and get a response we have not published, we would genuinely like to see it. It makes this record more useful for the next person.
Last updated 7 August 2026. Round one filed October 2025; round two posted 6–7 August 2026, from a personal consumer file.