Credit Bureau
A credit bureau is a company that collects, maintains, and reports consumer credit data to lenders. The three major bureaus in the US are Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. Lenders report payment activity to one or more bureaus, and they pull credit reports from one or more bureaus when underwriting new credit applications.
The three major credit bureaus operate as independent businesses, and they don’t always have identical data on you. A late payment a lender reports might go to Equifax but not TransUnion, or vice versa. This is why your credit report from each bureau can show slightly different information.
The big three
- Equifax: founded 1899, the largest by some metrics
- Experian: founded as a credit data company in 1996, also operates in the UK and Brazil
- TransUnion: founded 1968, popular for tenant screening
All three are regulated by the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), which gives consumers rights including: free reports annually (or weekly through AnnualCreditReport.com), the right to dispute inaccurate information, and the right to add a fraud alert or freeze.
Beyond the big three
Several specialty consumer reporting agencies track narrower data sets:
- Clarity Services, FactorTrust, DataX, MicroBilt: subprime lending activity (payday loans, online installment loans, etc.)
- ChexSystems: bank account history
- LexisNexis Risk Solutions: insurance and rental data
Subprime lenders often pull from these specialty bureaus in addition to (or instead of) the big three. This is why some “no credit check” lenders are still doing checks: just not at the bureaus most consumers know about.