The three top credit reporting organizations
In one sense or another, credit reports and credit scores are very crucial to your financial life. When you seek credit in the form of a mortgage, vehicle, personal, or other loan or credit card, financial companies depend on your credit reports and ratings. Usually, the landlords also handle your credit record while you are seeking an apartment. When you apply for certain employment, companies might potentially look at your credit record. You should so monitor the credit records to ensure that they are accurate and avoid mistakes.
Three main national credit reporting companies—often known as credit bureaus or consumer reporting agencies—now handle credit reports.
These three major companies are:
Equifax Experian TransUnion
It acquires info about your credit history from your creditors, collection agencies, government, and other related entities. They process it into credit reports that detail the credit accounts and the record of paying back loans, demonstrating how you have managed your financial status. In certain cases, your reports may even contain personal data such as your name, current and past addresses, birth date, and employers.
The credit reporting information that you obtain from the three credit bureaus will not be the same. That is because not all lenders report to all three credit agencies, although the majority of agencies do. It is therefore important that you check the reports that each of these companies has provided you with, to look for any mistakes or fraudulent dealings.
Besides the credit reports, credit bureaux also compute your credit scores, based on formulas such as FICO score, or Vantage Score. Such credit scoring models take into account information from your credit reports in coming up with a credit risk score that ranges up to a hundred digits. Indeed, this also assists in keeping one's credit score healthy as well when you monitor your credit reports.
That being said, let us discuss the top data points of the three primary national credit reporting agencies below.
Equifax Equifax Inc. is Atlanta, Georgia-based and it claims to maintain detailed records of more than 820 million consumers and 91 million companies across the globe. It also offers International consumer and commercial credit reporting and marketing services. Consumers can request credit reports and their credit scores from annualcreditreport.com and Equifax.com.
Some key facts about Equifax:
- Founded in 1899, it started as the Retail Credit Company.
- Gathers customer credit account information, payment history, and public records
- Includes credit monitoring service features such as Equifax CompleteTM Premier Plan
- An online credit report dispute platform
- Helds a mammoth data leak in the year 2017, which compromised millions of consumers' private data
Experian In its recent information release, Experian PLC claimed it had information on more than 1. 3 billion consumers and businesses around the world. Based in Dublin, Ireland, Experian also has access to 45 other countries. The company offers consumer credit reports, identity protection services, and other goods. It is possible to get the Experian reports and FICO® scores from the Experian site, as well as from the free annual credit reports.
Some Experian fast facts:
- Originally established in 1996 when the credit reporting division of TRW Inc. was purchased by the Experian group
- Provides users with multiple paid and free subscription services regarding credit monitoring.
- Offers the Experian BoostTM and CreditMatchTM tools to assist the consumer raise their credit score
- It drew much criticism in the past for the selling of customer data to third-party companies.
- They maintain a website called AAnnualCreditReport.com com that offers free annual credit reports.
TransUnion Today, TransUnion ranks among the three largest credit agencies and is responsible for the collection and storage of credit information on more than 230 million consumers across 31 countries. The firm operates from Chicago, Illinois in America, which is among the major global economic hubs. TransUnion’s Website and the TransUnion Credit Monitor mobile app are available to help consumers get credit reports and credit tracking tools.
Some TransUnion basics:
- That got its start in 1968 with the merger between Union Tank Car Company and Credit Bureau of Cook County
- Comes equipped with TrueIdentity® credit monitoring that includes elements such as the scan of the dark web and the lock on credit.
- Entails to offer monthly credit score information in VantageScore 3. 0
- If their private consumer data have been breached in a security breach incident that occurred in 2017
- According to TransUnion consumers can challenge the errors found on their credit report through the online platform.
Monitoring Your Credit Reports Since the three major credit bureaus are Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion, one should review his/her credit reports from all three bureaus. According to federal law, consumers can request their credit reports from any given company at least once per year free of charge. The three major CRAs are Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion and you can get your three free annual credit reports from the AnnualCreditReport. com. It is also advisable to look for errors that can be hurting your credit score.
Even though most credit monitoring services have monthly fees, one can get a free report with each of the agencies at least once each year to check your credit file regularly. The most important feature of credit tracking is the thorough examination of your credit profile across all three bureaus Equally important, credit monitoring helps in the optimization and defense of credit status in the long run.
Call now for expert credit repair services: (888) 803-7889
Read More:
What are the best credit check companies?
Do I need to monitor all three credit reports?
Which credit score gets checked the most?
Which credit score is most accurate?
Is Chase ID monitoring really free?
