The free credit freeze beats the free monitoring in your settlement letter

Credit monitoring watches your file and tells you after something happens. A credit freeze blocks new accounts from being opened in your name in the first place. Monitoring is an alarm; a freeze is a lock.

Since 2018, federal law makes freezes free for everyone at all three nationwide bureaus — Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion — and bureaus must place or lift an online freeze within one business day.

So should you skip the settlement's monitoring offer?

No — take it. Settlement monitoring often includes extras a freeze does not: dark-web watching, medical-identity monitoring, and identity-theft insurance. It costs you nothing and runs alongside a freeze.

The point is order of operations. Place the free freezes first — that is the protection — then enroll in the offered monitoring for the alerts and insurance.

The third free tool nobody mentions

You are also entitled to free weekly credit reports from all three bureaus at the single FTC-authorized site, AnnualCreditReport.com. After a breach notice, pull your reports, place freezes, then enroll in monitoring. Total cost: zero.