The Three Bureaus

Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion are the three nationwide credit bureaus: private companies that collect account information from lenders and sell it back to lenders, landlords, and others as credit reports.

Why it matters

Each bureau keeps its own file on you, and the files are not identical. A lender may report to one, two, or all three. That is why one bureau's report can show an account the others miss, and why an error can live on one file and not the others.

Key facts

• The bureaus are private, for-profit companies. They are not government agencies.
• Creditors choose which bureaus to report to; reporting is voluntary, not required.
• Your three reports can differ in accounts, balances, and errors.
• The bureaus are regulated under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), which gives you rights to see and dispute your files.
• Specialty bureaus also exist (for banking history, utilities, tenant screening), but the big three drive most credit decisions.

In practice

1. Pull all three reports at AnnualCreditReport.com, the federally authorized free source.
2. Compare them side by side; note any account that appears on one but not the others.
3. When you dispute an error, dispute it with each bureau that shows it - fixing one file does not fix the others.
4. Know which bureau a lender pulls before a big application, if they will tell you.