Credit Bureaus | Know the Facts

The personal information appearing on your credit report may either be reported by a credit grantor, obtained from public records, or it could be updated in response to correspondence with the individual consumer.

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• Do the bureaus make credit decisions?

Lenders make credit decisions, not credit bureaus. Each lender has its own formula for evaluating a credit application and only the lender can tell you why it made a decision. The role of the credit bureau is to supply the lender with the contents of the report for review when making credit decisions.

Many times, the decision does not rely on your bureau records alone, but instead is based on factors likeyour income, length of residence, or employment.

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• Can I get a copy of my report over the phone?

Because of the confidential nature of credit information, credit bureaus cannot disclose the contents of the report over the phone.

You can, how-ever, write to the credit bureaus or order and view your credit report online by visiting www.experian.com, www.equifax.com or www.transunion.com.

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• Who else can access my credit report?

A consumer reporting agency may furnish a consumer report under the following permissible purpose circumstances as defined in Section 604 of the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA):

In response to a court order or a Federal Grand Jury Subpoena.

In accordance with the written instruction of the consumer.

To a person whom someone has reason to believe:

What Do Credit Bureaus Do?

Credit bureaus generate more than a half-billion credit reports a year to make credit buying faster, easier, and safer for qualified consumers.

However, they do not “rate” your credit, since each credit grantor or lender has different requirements for the extension of credit.

Credit bureaus do not approve or reject consumer applications for credit. They merely report the information provided by the credit grantors.

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Who Are the Major Credit Bureaus?

Most credit bureaus are either owned or under contract with one of the nation's three major credit reporting agencies:

Trans Union,

Experian, and

Equifax.

These national agencies maintain centralized databases containing the credit records of more than 170 million Americans.

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What Is a Credit Bureau?

Credit bureaus are clearinghouses for historical credit information.

Credit grantors provide the bureaus with updates on customers’ outstanding loans, bill-paying habits, and overall credit history.

The bureaus assemble these updates into “files” on each consumer with public information obtained from courts records around the country and make them available to credit grantors.

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• Can I add favorable information to my credit report myself?

When you are trying to BUILD good credit, all the excellent pays, retired loans, etc should be included on your report but they are not always. How about your timely payment of your electric bill? or your rent? or any others.

Some companies don't report anything, unless bad of course!, so you need to make sure that the 'good' is also included if isn't already. The Fair Credit Report Act lets you add to your report, if in it's absence you are denied credit. You could be charged a fee, but if it gets you the credit score you need, it is well worth it.

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intends to use the report in connection with the extension of credit, or the review or collection of an account;

intends to use the report for insurance underwriting;

intends to use the report for determining the eligibility for a government license or benefit where the government agency is required to consider the consumer’s financial status; or

otherwise has a legitimate business need for the report in connection with a business transaction involving the consumer.