Wednesday, August 24, 2016

The 3 Credit Reporting Agencies

There are 3 different credit reporting agencies:
  • Experian 
  • Equifax 
  • TransUnion


Depending on where you live, depends on where your bank or credit union will (in most likelihood) pull your report from.  Your score may be different for each credit report pulled from these 3 agencies.  If you live on the East coast they will pull your credit report from Experian, if you live in central US or the south then Equifax tends to be king and if you live on the West Coast Trans Union seems to be the reigning favorite.  

The discrepancy in credit scores may not be super significant but really it depends on who your debt collectors are reporting to (by debt collectors I mean, your credit card companies, loan processors and whoever else you may have borrowed from).  Not all credit card companies report to all 3 agencies.  In fact, it is very common for them to only report to 1 or 2 agencies and not a 3rd.  If there is a large discrepancy on your credit report in regards to score this is normally the issue.      


You are entitled to a free copy of your credit report, from each agency, per year.   It is important that you either pull all 3 at once or pull 1 every few months to make sure there are no mistakes on it.  You want to make sure all the information on the reports is accurate. To obtain your free credit reports, visit: www.annualcreditreport.com.  

Some credit unions may provide a service called a score enhancement or something similar to that where they break down your credit report so you can see why your score is what it is.  If your credit union offers this service FREE of charge I suggest taking them up on it.  You should always know or be aware of what is happening with your credit report.  I have seen many instances where people didn't know and were unable to qualify for loans or mortgages that they needed due to mistakes or their own lack of knowledge of how a FICO score is calculated.  

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