Credit Report Monitoring FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions about Credit Report Monitoring

What type of credit report monitoring should I get?

We highly recommend you get "three bureau" credit monitoring. "Three bureau" refers to the three credit bureaus: Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. It is important to monitor all three bureaus, and not just one, since changes to your credit report often occur at only one bureau. For example, a potential identity thief may apply for a credit card using your information. If that credit card issuer requests your credit report (a "hard inquiry") from the Equifax credit bureau, but you are only monitoring your TransUnion credit report, then you will never know. If you are going to go through the trouble and expense to get a credit monitoring service, we think it is silly to try to save a few dollars to get a solution that is incomplete and may not work. We believe you need a service that monitors all three credit bureaus so you can be sure to stop identity theft before it happens. We think it is also critical to monitor all three bureaus from a general credit management perspective. If erroneous negative information, such as a late payment, gets reported to Experian but you are only monitoring Equifax, you will not know that your credit has just been harmed and will not be able to correct it.

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