Information About The Three Major Credit Bureaus

If you have ever been turned down for credit for any reason, you probably got a letter in the mail explaining that your credit was not sufficient for whatever reason, and then explaining from where that information was gathered. Although some companies only go with one credit reporting company, many more go with reports from all 3 major credit bureaus. They do this for many reasons, and those reasons are the same ones you should use to check up on your own credit. That could save you from getting those rejection letters when you need a loan or line of credit.

When we shop for autos or houses or even appliances or electrical or computer equipment, and we want to finance the items (get them on a loan to own or credit basis), the organizations doing the financing will run a credit check with one of the 3 major credit bureaus. The 3 major credit bureaus are Experian, TransUnion, and Equifax. They have been around for a long time and set the standard for credit record keeping and recording. If you have a delinquent account, they will know about it. The reason that some will go with all three instead of just checking with one of them is because some companies only report to one. What is contained in one report from one company may not show up on another. To get the whole true story, obtaining information from all three major credit reporting bureaus is a good idea. Here's a brief description of each bureau:

Equifax offers services and products to protect against identity theft, to manage and check credit, and to prepare for a major purchase. Equifax also provides tools for checking the value of a property, credit ranking, and the latest in business solutions (for B2B, B2C, and direct marketing, for example) and related news.

ON THE WEB
www.equifax.com

BY PHONE
For general concerns, call 1-800-685-1111
To report or investigate fraud, call 1-800-525-6285

POSTAL MAIL
To send snail mail correspondence, write to
PO Box 740241, Atlanta, GA 30374

Experian also offers products and services to protect against fraud, to check 3 credit bureau reports, to check vehicle history (with a report), and to get further educated in understanding your credit and heeding customer alerts (such as those on Experian's Katrina victims help pages and how to beware of phishing).

ON THE WEB
www.experian.com

BY PHONE
For general concerns, or to report or investigate fraud, call 1-888-397-3742

POSTAL MAIL
To send snail mail correspondence, write to
PO Box 2002, Allen, TX 75013

Like the former two, TransUnion offers products and support services for credit monitoring, provides fraud-prevention education and help, and free credit card report disclosures. As well, you can subscribe to the newsletter, to stay updated and get helpful credit tips; can find much information on preventing fraud or resuscitating your credit if you have been a victim of fraud, and can dispute credit card items you suspect or know to be false.

ON THE WEB
www.transunion.com

BY PHONE
For general concerns, call 1-800-888-4213
To report or investigate fraud, call 1-800-680-7289

POSTAL MAIL
To send snail mail correspondence, write to
PO Box 2000, Chester, PA 19022

When rejected for credit reasons, you will see which of the 3 major credit bureaus was consulted about your credit, if not all. When you get such a letter, you have thirty days to write in and ask for a copy of that credit report. When this happens, you should always take advantage of the offer. This is because in most cases, you are going to have to pay for the information. There is now a program that allows you to get one free report a year, but unfortunately that is often not enough in many cases. Obviously, you'll want to know what is going on, and then how you can fix it.

Another thing that the 3 major credit bureaus can help you with is protecting you from identity theft. They help in the way that shows listings of credit that you may not have taken out and that is now in default. Though this is a slow way to learn about this happening, sometimes it is the first clue that something is not right. When you see something on a report from any of the 3 major credit bureaus that is not of your doing, contact them immediately and then go through the proper channels to see what you can do to stop the activity.

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