I currently have credit monitoring through Experian and I pay extra for it to monitor all three credit bureaus. In light of the recent Equifax breach and Equifax offering credit monitoring for those affected, is there any benefit to signing up for the service that Equifax is offering?
Monitoring your credit doesn't do much. There are some vendors that actually have staff to repair your credit/identity.
Substantially all of the credit monitoring services do what they say and monitor. If you have a problem they notify you then point you to the place(s) that you can work with to repair the issue. This is not terribly valuable, definitely not worth having multiples, but the repair aspect of some IS very valuable. You sign a limited power of attorney and set loose someone else to fix the problem.
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Monitoring helps in immediately flagging any suspicious activity like opening a new credit line etc. Thus allowing you to take immediate action. Of course as you mentioned monitoring does not help in repairing your credit... – kaza Sep 8 '17 at 16:04
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@bulbus, and also as I said, all monitoring does is monitor and notify. Multiple monitors and notifications would be a nuisance. Separately, the notification is FAR from immediate and not to be relied on. – quid Sep 8 '17 at 17:16
Changes may have come as a result of the breach you referenced. My understanding is that Experian is not charging for that service as of now. Something Id look into
Good question given what happened with Equifax
You could avoid paying extra to Experian for monitoring all three, if you are getting free monitoring from Equifax(Only if Experian charges less for monitoring their own vs monitoring all three). If you do cancel monitor all three then the only one you would not be monitoring is Trans Union, but you should be fine as most finance companies report to at least two credit unions.
But if you want to be 100% sure then monitor all three. But I would regard that as an overkill(personal opinion)
