Credit Bureaus As you may be aware, there are 3 main credit bureaus Experian, Equifax and Trans Union. Since these are the main ones, generally these are the only ones to be concerned about. Now, when you apply for credit of some sort it is often likely that your potential lender will check into but one of these scores to make their decision on your approval and interest rate. This is because it is simple for them to do so and it will generally be in the same ballpark as the others. However sometimes there will be enough of a difference that you could end up either being rejected or have a higher rate of interest charged when you could have gotten a lower one. This same practice holds true for the creditors. There is a good chance that they will only report to one of the three on the status of your standing with them. They may report to all three if they subscribe to all of their services but often they do not and this is the reason as to why your score can differ from one company to the next. This is why checking into all three of your scores is a good practice to ensure your score reflects well on all three. It is actually alarming to some the difference in scores between the companies as well, enough mistakes have actually happened and continue to happen that there are Federal laws in place that are in often in favor of the consumer. Here are a few laws that you can draw on if needed to improve your credit score. How do the Credit Bureaus get their information? Credit Bureaus obtain their information from a variety of sources but the majority of information actually comes from the companies that subscribe to their services. These are usually lenders such as credit card companies, banks, mortgage, oil companies as well as large department stores. They also get some information from public records that are available from court documents and may include bankruptcies, judgments, tax liens etc. It should also be pointed out that not all creditors actually belong to the credit bureaus. The chances are that if a small store has issued you credit, your good standing may not even show up on your report, but this also is true of negative issues. There are three main credit bureaus and your report will not necessarily be the same between all three. There is a good chance that if you apply for credit, your creditor will investigate your score with just one of these bureaus and if they find a negative report, they will probably not go looking to another one. For this reason alone, it is important to make sure that your credit report is accurate with all three. Here are the names and locations of each: Equifax P.O. Box 105873 Atlanta, GA 30348 (800) 685-1111 TRW/ Experian P.O. Box 949 Allen, TX 75013-0949 (800) 392-1122 TransUnion P.O. Box 390 Springfield, PA 19064 (800) 851-2674 |
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Information to help you raise your credit score |
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