21 May 2005
Major credit reporting agencies are most commonly known as credit bureaus. The three major credit reporting agencies are: Equifax, Trans Union and Experian. These credit bureaus are in the business of gathering, maintaining, and selling information on consumers’ credit histories in files called credit reports. These credit reports house all your credit history, current and past, good and bad, as reported by the creditors to the reporting agencies, as well as personal information such as current and previous addresses and employment, birthdays, social security numbers and a list of who and when someone requested your credit bureau report.
Although a credit reporting agencies provides your credit bureau report to lenders when you apply for credit, they do not make actual lending decisions. It is up to individual lenders to evaluate your credit bureau report and any other factors they consider important and then decide whether or not to offer you credit. Some of the factors a lending will consider along with your credit history are your credit report score, your employment and residence stability and your income. It is important to note that the major credit report agencies operate as separate companies therefore they do not exchange information with one another. According to Consumer Reports magazine, 48% of consumers have errors in their reports at the credit bureaus, and 12% of those errors are major enough to result in those people being turned down for credit.
Your credit report is your electronic fingerprint, like a financial resume to the financial industry, which always precedes you. It is your responsibility to make sure that the information is correct. It is recommended that you review your report from each of the major credit report bureaus on an annual basis and take the necessary steps to correct any errors you find on your bureau report.
Linda Meadley
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