With an abundance of scams and data breaches exposing people’s sensitive information, it doesn’t take much for a criminal to put together an identity profile and ruin a victim’s finances. That’s why more people every day are placing a credit freeze on their financial accounts. The question now is, should you?

According to a study, identity fraud cost Americans $43 billion last year. An empty bank account, unexpected credit card purchases, and bills for accounts you never opened are signs something is wrong, so don’t wait to act.

Placing a credit freeze helps prevent new credit accounts from being opened in your name. A credit freeze won’t prevent identity theft, but it can help soften the blow financially. It’s important to keep in mind, that during a credit freeze you’ll still need to pay all of your bills.

What you need to know about a credit freeze

Applying a credit freeze is at no cost to you and is relatively easy to do. That’s especially true considering the great effort it can take to dig yourself out of a financial fraud attack and reestablish your credit.

To freeze your credit, you need to contact all three credit bureaus—Equifax, TransUnion, and Experian, individually. You can place a freeze over the phone or online. Just make sure you’re using the legitimate contact information before moving forward. Once the freeze is in place, no one but you can open a new credit account, and you’ll need to temporarily lift the freeze to do so.

Lifting a credit freeze for any length of time means you’ll have to contact all three credit bureaus again. This can also be done at no cost to you. The time it takes to undo a credit freeze and reinstate it, is well worth the effort.

The reasons to use a credit freeze or not is a choice best made by being informed. And since data breaches and scammers aren’t going away any time soon, regularly check your credit reports and limit the amount of personal information shared online.