In short
A security freeze is a notation on your credit report prohibiting the agency from issuing your report or credit score to open new accounts or extend credit. It is requested in writing, by certified mail, to the address each agency designates for it, and the agency has five (5) business days to place it once it receives the written request, proper identification and payment of the fee, if applicable. Within ten (10) business days of it being established, the agency must send you written confirmation and give you a unique personal identification number or passcode: that PIN is what later lets you lift the freeze. If you need your report available for a period — for a mortgage, a car, a job — you request a temporary lift with your identification, your PIN, the time period and payment if applicable, and the agency has three (3) business days to comply. The freeze stays in effect until you ask to remove it, and removal also takes three (3) business days. On cost: Puerto Rico’s law allows charging up to ten dollars ($10.00) to place, temporarily lift or remove, and forbids charging anything to an identity-theft victim who submits a copy of an investigative report or police complaint, and to a consumer over sixty-five (65) on their initial request to place or remove.
What is it?
The law takes its basic definitions from the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act: "consumer report", "consumer reporting agency" and "proper identification" mean here what they mean there. What Puerto Rico adds is the procedure with deadlines and the right to demand it. It was born, per its statement of motives, against identity theft, which the Police then reported at some 60 to 70 cases a month on the island. The freeze does not erase your history or fix an already-opened fraudulent account: what it does is close the door going forward, preventing your report from being issued to open new accounts while it is in place.
Who can do it?
Any "consumer", which the law defines as an individual who is a resident of Puerto Rico. You need not be a fraud victim to request it; being one only changes the cost. There are three types of entity the law exempts from having to place the freeze: an agency acting only as a reseller of credit information that keeps no permanent database — though that reseller must still honour any freeze imposed by another agency; a check-services or fraud-prevention company issuing reports to approve or process negotiable instruments and similar payments; and a deposit-account information services company reporting to banks on account closures for fraud, substantial overdrafts or ATM abuse.
Requirements
- Being an individual resident of Puerto Rico.Verified against the official source
- Sending the request in writing by certified mail to the address the credit reporting agency designates to receive them.Verified against the official source
- Including proper identification, as that term is defined in the Fair Credit Reporting Act.Verified against the official source
- Paying the applicable fee, if any; nothing is charged to an identity-theft victim submitting a report or police complaint, nor to a consumer over 65 on their initial request.Verified against the official source
Documents you need
Cost
Step by step
Step 1: Write to each agency by certified mail
The law asks for a written request sent by certified mail to the address each credit reporting agency designates to receive them. The freeze is per agency: to close the door completely, you must ask each one that keeps your report. Keep the certified mail receipt; it is the date from which the five business days run.
Step 2: Wait for confirmation and guard the PIN
The agency must send you written confirmation within ten (10) business days of the freeze being established, and provide a unique personal identification number or passcode. That PIN is what you will use to authorize removal or a temporary lift. Without it the process gets complicated; keep it somewhere you can find in an emergency, and not in the same place as your cards.
Step 3: Lift it temporarily when you are going to apply for credit
If you are going to apply for a mortgage, a car loan, a job or a rental, request the temporary lift: proper identification, your PIN, the information about the period during which the report will be available, and payment if applicable. The agency has three (3) business days from receiving the complete request. The law lets agencies develop phone, fax, internet or other electronic procedures to process this expeditiously.
Step 4: If you are an identity-theft victim, you pay nothing
Article 14 waives the fee for a victim of identity theft who submits, when requesting the freeze, a valid copy of an investigative or incident report or of a complaint before a law enforcement agency about the illegal use of their personal information by another person. It also waives it for a consumer over sixty-five (65) on their initial request to place or remove the freeze.
Step 5: Watch for changes in your file
With the freeze in place, the agency must inform you in writing within thirty (30) days if your name, date of birth, Social Security number or address changes. That notice is not required for technical changes — name and street abbreviations, full names, or corrections of transposed numbers or letters — but for an address change the written confirmation goes to both the new and the old address. That notice is one of the best early fraud alerts there is.
Where to do it
The request goes directly to each credit reporting agency, in writing and by certified mail to the address that agency designates. For enforcement, Article 18 splits jurisdiction: the Secretary of the Department of Consumer Affairs has general administration of this law, and the Commissioner of Financial Institutions has it when the dispute involves an entity its office supervises. To request your credit report, the official site is annualcreditreport.com.
How long it takes
Placing the freeze: 5 business days from the agency receiving the written request, identification and payment if applicable. Written confirmation with the PIN: 10 business days from it being established. Temporary lift: 3 business days. Removal: 3 business days.
Verified against the official source · August 23, 2026
What to do if something goes wrong
On money, carefully: the figures above are the ones Puerto Rico’s law sets — up to $10 to place, lift or remove, and zero for identity-theft victims with a police complaint and for people 65 or older on their first request. Credit reporting agencies also operate under federal law, which this guide does not summarise because we did not read it here; confirm the charge with the agency before paying rather than assuming the local cap. And there is something the freeze does not stop, written into the very notice the law requires: it does not apply to a person or entity, its affiliates or collection agencies acting on its behalf, with which you already have an existing account and which requests your report to review or collect that account. It also does not apply to government or law-enforcement agencies acting under a court order, subpoena or summons, to child support agencies, to prescreening permitted by the FCRA, to credit monitoring services you subscribed to, to whoever gives you your own report, or to anyone using it to underwrite insurance. Finally, the warning the law itself orders printed: using a freeze may delay or prevent the timely approval of loans, mortgages, employment, rentals, cell phones, utilities and other applications. That is why the temporary lift exists.
Common mistakes
- Requesting it from a single agency: the freeze is per agency and must be requested from each.
- Sending it by regular mail or by phone: the law asks for a written request by certified mail.
- Losing the PIN, which is what later lets you lift or remove the freeze.
- Not lifting it before applying for a mortgage, loan, job or rental, and having the application treated as incomplete.
- Paying without knowing that identity-theft victims with a police complaint and people 65 or older are exempt.
- Believing the freeze fixes an already-opened fraudulent account: it only closes the door going forward.
- Expecting it to stop a creditor you already have an account with that requests the report to review or collect it.
Frequently asked questions
How long does it take to be placed?
Five (5) business days from the agency receiving the written request, proper identification and payment of the fee if applicable. The written confirmation with your PIN arrives within ten (10) business days of it being established.
I need a mortgage. Do I have to remove it entirely?
No. There is the temporary lift: with proper identification, your PIN, the information about the period during which the report will be available and payment if applicable, the agency must comply within three (3) business days. The freeze returns on its own when the period you requested ends.
Can it be removed without my asking?
Only in one case: the agency may remove or suspend it at its discretion if the report was frozen as a result of a false statement made by the consumer. And if it intends to remove it for any reason other than your own request, it must notify you in writing before proceeding.
What happens if someone requests my report with the freeze on?
If a third party requests access, the request relates to a credit application or any other use, and you did not make the report available during that period, the third party may treat the application as incomplete. The agency may inform a bona fide third party that a freeze is associated with your report.
Can I sue if the agency does not comply?
The law says it expressly: any natural or juridical person who wilfully or negligently fails to comply with any requirement of this law as to a consumer shall be liable to that consumer for the actual damages suffered and, in a successful action, for the costs of the case together with a reasonable amount of attorney fees as determined by a court.
Official sources
These are the government pages this guide is based on.
- Departamento de Asuntos del Consumidor (DACO)
DACO
bvirtualogp.pr.gov
- DACO services
DACO
www.daco.pr.gov
- AnnualCreditReport.com, the official site to request your credit report
Federal
www.annualcreditreport.com
Last verified
August 23, 2026
MiPRFácil is an independent informational website and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or operated by the Government of Puerto Rico or any government agency.
MiPRFácil does not submit applications on your behalf.
Was this guide helpful?
Did you find out-of-date information?
Debt collection agencies: the 15 practices the law forbids them
Act 143-1968 licenses collection agencies and forbids fifteen practices, from threatening violence to charging additional fees never agreed to.
Credit repair companies: what the law forbids them to charge you
Act 153-2013 bans advance payment, gives seven days to cancel and caps the contract at six months. And it clarifies what cannot be erased from your file.
How to file a consumer complaint with DACO
Three routes: online, on paper at a regional office, or by phone at 787-722-7555. And there is no single form.
Prescription: how long they can collect from you or sue you
Personal actions prescribe in 4 years and damages in 1 year from learning who caused them. Acknowledging the debt restarts the clock.
How to file an administrative complaint against a police officer
The five official filing channels, the toll-free SARP number, and why you can file even without the officer’s name or badge number.
Complaint against a bank, mortgage company or lender
The OCIF handles complaints against Puerto Rico financial institutions, but not against “N.A.” banks, cooperatives or out-of-state banks. Here is the line.