Recently, as part of the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act of 2018, Congress made several changes to credit rules that benefit consumers.

Under the new law, consumers are now allowed to "freeze" and "unfreeze" their credit reports free of charge at all three of the major credit reporting bureaus, Equifax, Experian,and TransUnion. The law also extends free credit freeze protection to children under age 16 and increases initial fraud alert protection to one full year (previously, fraud alerts expired after 90 days unless they were renewed).