What Are the Three Credit Agencies
The three national credit reporting companies are Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. They are private businesses that collect information from lenders and other data furnishers and compile credit reports. They are not government agencies, and each company maintains its own separate file on a consumer.
The phrase “the three credit agencies” is a common shorthand for the three largest nationwide consumer reporting companies in the United States: Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. They are private, for-profit businesses rather than government agencies. Each one maintains its own database of consumer credit information and produces its own credit reports. Federal law, chiefly the Fair Credit Reporting Act, applies to these nationwide consumer reporting companies and to many smaller specialty companies. A single consumer can have three separate files, one at each company, and the contents of those files may not be identical.
Information in these files generally comes from data furnishers. Creditors such as banks, credit unions, credit card issuers, auto lenders, mortgage servicers, and student loan servicers may report account activity. Debt collectors and some public record sources may also supply information, depending on reporting practices and legal requirements. Furnishers decide which companies to report to and how often. As a result, one company may show an account while another does not, or an account may appear with different balances or status dates. Credit reports typically include identifying information, account history, inquiries, collection accounts, and sometimes public record items. The Fair Credit Reporting Act sets standards for accuracy and gives consumers dispute rights.
Consumers can obtain their reports directly from each nationwide company, and AnnualCreditReport.com is the federally authorized website for requesting free reports from all three. Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, nationwide consumer reporting companies must provide a free report every twelve months, and additional free reports are available in certain situations, such as after an adverse action or with an identity theft report. Lenders, landlords, insurers, and employers may request reports for permissible purposes defined by law. The three companies also sell credit scores and monitoring products, but a score is a separate calculation based on report data; different scoring models and different company files can produce different results.
Because the three nationwide companies operate independently, a lender may review a report from one company, two companies, or all three. Some mortgage lenders, for example, may use a merged report containing data from Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. Information can vary among them, so reviewing each file helps consumers understand what each company is reporting. If a consumer finds incomplete or inaccurate information, the Fair Credit Reporting Act allows a dispute with the consumer reporting company and with the furnisher. The company generally must investigate within thirty days and correct or delete information that cannot be verified. Consumers may also submit complaints to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau or the Federal Trade Commission, and identity theft can be reported at IdentityTheft.gov.