Listeners who have frozen their credit often ask us if that will affect their ability to access their credit report. TransUnion and Experian say you won't have trouble doing so. Equifax, however, says you will need to provide additional documentation to prove who you are.

Meanwhile, Quizzle.com, CreditKarma.com and Credit.com all unanimously say you may have trouble accessing your free credit score from them if your credit is frozen.

CreditKarma.com hopes to have this problem solved in the next several weeks. Meanwhile, the website also has launched a credit simulator tool that lets you see, for example, how not paying a bill one month will affect your credit score.

On a related note, we've received questions about a variety of scenarios involving your credit score. Our senior producer Kim did some research with Fair Isaac and Clark wants to share the results with you.

In one scenario, a caller told us that a credit inquiry was run by a car dealership -- even though he was buying a car in cash! Fair Isaac confirms that when you go to buy a car, your credit may be run behind your back. This is permissible activity when you enter into the purchasing process -- even if you're paying cash!

Another caller was a victim of ID theft. The ID theft had been resolved, but the criminals tried to take out credit in the caller's name and those inquires lowered her credit score. Fair Isaac tells us that victims can dispute such fraudulent items with the individual credit bureau. In theory, the bureau is supposed to remove those inquiries from your report and there should be no impact to your credit score.

Finally, a third caller's bank accidentally opened a credit card in her name. The account was closed, but the incident lowered her credit score. Fair Isaac reports that when the bank makes an error like this, the bank is the one that must petition the credit bureaus to delete the inquiry from your credit report.