No experience with a 7 year fraud alert but last year did place a 3 month fraud alert with the credit bureaus (due to a credit card opened in my name which I promptly cancelled).
It made the churning game a little more inconvenient while I had the alert in place due to all of my apps not giving me an instant approval, always had to call in for security questions (which is the point), but a little more of a hassle nonetheless. For example, for a Barclay app I had to mail copies of my SS, drivers license, and a utility bill.