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> they won't let you unlock your credit to apply for a mortgage

So how do you recover from something like that? Are you basically prevented from using credit for the rest of your life?

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There are legal limits to how long the data can be stored for. (I want to say it's a federal 7 year limit, but I might be wrong and it might be state laws). Eventually it all times out and your credit resets.

That's not the issue. They are required to immediately remove incorrect information from your credit report. A freeze prevents them from reporting your credit to third parties (i.e. it prevents them from doing business). So, they hate people who freeze their credit. Their strategy seems to be to make having a credit freeze so onerous that you won't do it so they can continue to sell your information to their customers.

For many years I could not get a new credit card, overdraft protection on a checking account or a mortgage. I finally was able to completely remove the freeze so that I could secure a mortgage.

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