Credit bureaus say there are less-cumbersome ways to prevent financial-identity theft. "File freezing is really the extreme measure," says Rod Griffin, Experian's manager of public education. "It can be the right thing for a person who has an extreme issue with identity theft, but if you freeze your credit file, you're removing yourself from the credit marketplace."

Other tools are available for people concerned about identity theft but not inclined to freeze their credit reports. For people who are still active in applying for new credit, credit-monitoring services, offered by the credit bureaus for a fee of between $4.95 and $14.95 a month, typically send e-mail alerts to customers if there is unusual activity or changes in their credit files.

Consumers can also place free 90-day fraud alerts against their credit files, which require lenders and merchants to verify an applicant's identity before opening a new account. (Victims of identity theft qualify for alerts lasting longer than 90 days.) But consumer advocates say that some lenders may not take the alerts seriously, especially if they are eager to sign you up for a new loan.

Scott Marberblatt of Swampscott, Mass., says he uses several credit-monitoring services to alert him to potential identity theft. But the 46-year-old small-business owner says he plans to drop some of these services, thereby saving "a decent amount of money," and instead freeze his credit after the option becomes available at all three bureaus next month.

"The whole purpose of the credit freeze is to keep yourself from being victimized in the first place," says Kirk Torgensen, chief deputy in Utah's attorney general's office. Once Utah's credit-freeze law goes into effect in September — which will, among other things, require the credit bureaus to lift a freeze within 15 minutes of a consumer's request — the attorney general's office plans to support the law with public-service campaigns in print and TV.

Jaimee Napp of Omaha, Neb., says she recently froze her credit reports after her state's credit-freeze law took effect last month. Napp, a vocal supporter of the legislation as it was being considered, was herself a victim of identity theft two years ago when a former co-worker opened new credit cards in her name. "I would rather go through and plan my credit purchases with a little more caution than have to deal with cleaning up the credit reports after it's been damaged," says the 36-year-old, who now runs a nonprofit group that helps identity-theft victims.