There are many credit bureaus that establish and maintain credit files. Some are specialty reporting agencies that report data such as checking, gambling and insurance activities.
The three major credit reporting agencies that collect and maintain individual credit files are Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. Each of these agencies operates independently of the other two.
Though the agencies provide similar information, they must compete with each other for business. As such, they provide different products, and they do not share information.
Creditors may report account information to one agency and not the others. The information contained for any individual may differ among the different agencies. When individuals request corrections and updates to credit files, they must address each credit reporting agency separately.
A credit reporting agency (CRA) collects information on consumers including where you live, work, the bills that you pay, and any public information including bankruptcy, arrested, tickets, lawsuits, etc. These (CRA’s) are companies that you engage with indirectly or directly, (ie credit card company).
Your credit report is compromised of all the information that is available to be purchased about you from the various CRA’s. These companies make their money off selling your data to people/companies who are looking into information about you. For instance, an employer is going to do a background check on your, or a life insurance company is going to look into any and all information they can find before they give you a policy.
Equifax, Experian, and Transunion are the three largest credit bureaus that provide nationwide consumer reports. You will notice when looking at your credit report that a large portion of the items listed on your credit score is the same, but there are also differences on different reports.
This is due to the companies that report to the agencies and the systems that collect the information, they are all different and not every company reports to every agency. There are other bureaus that focus on niche industries for reporting credit items, but you do not need to know about them.
Information on your credit report may stay on your credit reports for as long as seven to ten years. Positive entries represent an advantage to the consumer, but negative entries may negatively affect your credit for years in the future.
Your credit score usually gets updated every 30 days. As every creditor reports to the bureaus at different times throughout the month, it can take up to 60 days to see change depending on when the item was processed by the credit bureaus. Keep in mind that not all lenders report to all 3 credit bureaus so you might see a change on one or two of the bureaus and not the others.
Dana George-Berberich is a freelance reporter and novelist. She has written finance articles for newspapers across the country and for companies like Dun & Bradstreet and Bankrate.
