Three-in-One Credit Monitoring or Single Bureau?
There are three major credit bureaus in North America: Equifax, TransUnion and Experian. When a creditor requests your credit report, he has one of three choices to request it from. If you have single bureau monitoring, and the creditor requests your information from another bureau, you will not be notified. With 3-in-1 monitoring, you will be notified, because your monitoring service is keeping track of your credit from all three bureaus.
Single Bureau Monitoring
Each credit bureau has their own monitoring service, and they will notify you if somebody requests your credit file from the bureau you are with. Because each company collects your information separately, your file and score may be slightly different from bureau to bureau. Though your information is incomplete, it is still fairly accurate, and the cost of the service is lower.
Because each agency is constantly gathering your financial information, any opened accounts, new loans, mortgages, etc will eventually be collected by all three agencies to better complete your report. However, each company uses different reporting methods, so there is no guaranteed time when you will be notified about any changes.
3-in-1 Credit Monitoring
This service, also offered by each credit bureau as well as independent companies and financial institutions, constantly monitor your reports from all three agencies. You are notified when anybody requests your information, regardless of which bureau they ask, and you are alerted to any change in your credit information from every source, usually within 24 hours. Not only does this make the monitoring much more accurate and comprehensive, you can also compare the complete reports from every agency to look for inaccuracies.
For this reason, most credit services encourage this type of monitoring.
