>> Credit Bureau Overview
What is a credit bureau?
Credit bureaus, or credit reporting agencies, are basically clearinghouses for information about consumers' credit. When you apply for credit, they provide this information to qualified requestors. There are three main credit bureaus: Equifax, based in Atlanta, Georgia; Experian, based in Allen, Texas; and TransUnion, based in Springfield, Pennsylvania.
How do the credit bureaus obtain information?
Credit bureaus collect information from banks, savings and loans, credit unions, finance companies, and retailers about your credit, which they store in a computer database.
Do all three credit bureaus have the same information on file?
No, because lenders send information to some and not others. Credit bureaus receive more than two billion pieces of data each month, so it's a given that mistakes are going to happen. (An independent study by Arthur Andersen, however, showed that only one-fifth of 1 percent of these errors led to someone being denied credit.) Credit reports are available from three main reporting agencies: Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion, and these "big three" do not exchange information with each other. Therefore each of them may have different information, depending on who and what was reported to them. What is on one report may differ from another.
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