Regular credit monitoring is an important routine practice since it helps you track your credit score and spot fraud early.
But in order to get a comprehensive look into your credit file, you need to be thorough. Three-bureau credit monitoring alerts you of changes on credit reports from all three credit bureaus — Experian, Equifax and TransUnion.
Without triple-bureau protection, you can miss errors that may only appear on one of the three credit reports. That’s bad news if you apply for credit and a lender pulls the report with errors you didn’t know about, potentially jeopardizing your approval odds.
Below, we explain how you can get three-bureau credit monitoring, so you can secure your credit information.
Take action to protect your identity
Offers in this section are from affiliate partners and selected based on a combination of engagement, product relevance, compensation, and consistent availability.
Individual plan: $10/month billed annually or $13/month billed monthly; Couple plan: $18/month billed annually or $24/month billed monthly; Family plan: $29/month billed annually or $39/month billed monthly
Protects against financial fraud, identity theft, spam calls, online theft, phishing and scam websites, viruses and malware, as well as offering security tailored to kids and financial alerts like credit score monitoring
$6.67 to $29.99 per month
Up to $1 million in insurance for eligible losses from identity theft
How to get triple-bureau credit monitoring
IdentityForce®
On IdentityForce®’s secure site.
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Cost
UltraSecure Individual: $19.90 per month or $199.90 per year; UltraSecure+Credit Individual: $34.90 per month or $349.90 per year; UltraSecure Family: $24.90 per month or $249.90 per year; UltraSecure+Credit Family: $39.90 per month or $399.90 per year
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Credit bureaus monitored
3-bureau credit monitoring, alerts and reports: Experian, Equifax and TransUnion®, with UltraSecure+Credit Individual and UltraSecure+Credit Family plans only
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Credit scoring model used
VantageScore® 3.0, with UltraSecure+Credit Individual and UltraSecure+Credit Family plans only
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Dark web scan
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Identity theft insurance
Yes, at least $1 million with all plans
PrivacyGuard®
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Cost
$9.99 to $24.99 per month
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Credit bureaus monitored
Experian, Equifax and TransUnion
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Credit scoring model used
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Dark web scan
Yes, for Identity and Total Protection plans
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Identity insurance
Yes, up to $1 million for Identity and Total Protection plans
Experian IdentityWorks℠
On Experian’s secure site
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Cost
Basic: Free; Premium: 7-day trial, after $24.99 per month; Family: 7-day trial, after $34.99 per month
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Credit bureaus monitored
1-bureau credit monitoring, alerts and reports: Experian, with Basic plan only and 3-bureau credit monitoring, alerts and reports: Experian, Equifax and TransUnion®, with Premium and Family plans only
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Credit scoring model used
FICO® Score 8, with all plans
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Dark web scan
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Identity theft insurance
Yes, up to $1 million with all plans
*Identity Theft Insurance underwritten by insurance company subsidiaries or affiliates of American International Group, Inc. (AIG). The description herein is a summary and intended for informational purposes only and does not include all terms, conditions and exclusions of the policies described. Please refer to the actual policies for terms, conditions, and exclusions of coverage. Coverage may not be available in all jurisdictions.
FICO® Basic, Advanced and Premier
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Cost
$29.95 to $39.95 per month
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Credit bureaus monitored
Experian for Basic plan or Experian, Equifax and TransUnion for Advanced and Premier plans
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Credit scoring model used
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Dark web scan
Yes, for Advanced and Premier plans
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Identity insurance
If you’re not willing to pay a fee, the other option is to manually review each of your credit reports on a regular basis.
Traditionally, you’re entitled to one free credit report from each bureau per year, but thanks to a recent change, Experian, Equifax and TransUnion are offering free credit reports to all Americans on a weekly basis through April 2022. All you need to do is request your credit reports at AnnualCreditReport.com every week and review them for any discrepancies.
When you’re reviewing your credit reports, keep an eye out for these red flags:
- New accounts that you didn’t open
- Identity errors (wrong name, phone number or address)
- Incorrect reporting of account status (late payments when you’ve paid on time, closed accounts reported as open or being listed as the owner of an account when you’re just an authorized user)
- Data management errors (reinsertion of incorrect information after it was corrected)
- Balance errors (incorrect current balance or credit limit)
If you find anything out of place, dispute the credit report errors as soon as possible.
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Why trust CNBC Select?
At CNBC Select, our mission is to provide our readers with high-quality service journalism and comprehensive consumer advice so they can make informed decisions with their money. Every credit monitoring review is based on rigorous reporting by our team of expert writers and editors with extensive knowledge of credit monitoring products. While CNBC Select earns a commission from affiliate partners on many offers and links, we create all our content without input from our commercial team or any outside third parties, and we pride ourselves on our journalistic standards and ethics.
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To learn more about IdentityForce®, visit their website.
Editorial Note: Opinions, analyses, reviews or recommendations expressed in this article are those of the Select editorial staff’s alone, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any third party.
