Cash. Credit Karma is free and it’s free to freeze your credit, which is what I started doing.
How big of a pain is it to unfreeze it?
We aren't planning to use credit anytime soon, but I don't want to make it a huge hassle when we do (probably within 2-3 years?).
No pain at all. I thought it would be a hassle, but it was pretty much instant. I had to unfreeze it when we bought the house. I think one may have taken 24 hours, but that was the longest one.