Credit Bureau Info
Do all credit bureaus have the same information?
No. Although information collected by these bureaus is supposed to be the same, inconsistencies frequently occur. The three major credit bureaus, Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion, are all independent of each other and do not share any information; therefore, the personal financial information that is contained in your credit file at one of the credit bureau companies will most likely not be exactly the same as the credit information in another.
Each credit bureau provides the following information about you and your personal financial history, although the exact information in these categories may differ:
There are four main categories of information in your credit report
1. Personal information
Your credit report contains information that identifies you, including the following:
- Your name
- Your social security number
- Your current address and previous addresses
- Your phone number
- Your date of birth
- Your current employer and previous employers
2. Your credit history
Your credit report includes your history of bill paying with lenders such as
- Banks
- Mortgage companies
- Retail stores
- Finance companies
3. Credit Report Inquiries
Your credit report lists the lenders and credit grantors that have requested or received your credit report. The general rule is the fewer inquires on your report, the better.4. Public records
Your report lists any items that may affect your credit. These items include
- Court judgments, including child support judgments
- Tax liens
- Bankruptcies
When lenders check your credit history, they can pull a report containing the above information from any one of the 3 major bureaus. One bureau's credit report may contain more accurate information about your personal financial history than another, but you don't know which agency that will be, much less which agency a potential lender will pull your report from.
Luckily, there's a solution to this dilemma: a 3 in 1 credit report. While, as mentioned, a single bureau report includes information from one agency only, a 3-in-one report provides your credit history as provided by all three major agencies (Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion). By checking the credit reports from all three, you'll be able to fix any errors that come up, and you'll know exactly what lenders will see regarding your credit history, no matter which agency's report they use.