Who are the Credit Agencies?

There are three major Credit Agencies that collect credit information from various sources on consumers. Almost every time a consumer fills out a credit card application, applies for loan to buy a car or boat, or borrow money from the bank to buy a house, these Credit Agencies record this information transaction. These Credit Agencies record any relationship a consumer has with a lender, creditor, utility, collection agency or court, such as a bankruptcy filing. The information compiled by any one of these Credit Agencies goes into a consumer's credit bureau report. All Credit Agencies are regulated by the Fair Credit Reporting Act.

Exquifax is the oldest and largest of the three major credit bureaus. Equifax was founded in 1899 as the Retail Credit Company.  By 1920, the company had offices throughout the U.S. and Canada. In 1960, the Retail Credit Company had files on more than 1 million Americans and Canadians.  The Retail Credit Company changed its name to Equifax in 1975, shortly after the enactment of the Fair Credit reporting Act. Equifax sells credit reports, analytics, demographic information and software.

Experian operates in 36 countries and employes more than 15,000 people. Experian's headquarters is in Dublin, Ireland. They have operational headquarters in Nottingham, England, and Costa Mesa, California.  The company was founded in 1980 as CNN Systems and it is the youngest and second largest of the three major Credit Agencies. Experian markets credit reports to consumers through its website FreeCreditReport.com, which sells credit monitoring services to consumers. Consumers are entitled to one free credit report every year from each of the three major Credit Agencies.

TransUnion was founded as Union Tank Car Company in 1968. Today, Chicago-based TransUnion is the third largest credit bureau agency and operates more than 250 offices in the United States and in 24 countries.

When you apply for a loan or a credit card, try to get insurance or rent an apartment, lenders, insurers and property owners may want to review your credit history. A consumer's credit report says a lot. A credit report provides information to lenders so they can calculate the risk of doing business with consumers. A large debt load, too many late payments and a low credit score indicate that the consumer may be a high risk for a loan, while a consumer who pays their bills on time, has a high credit score and a healthy debt-to-income ratio may be a lower risk.

Almost any time a consumer applies for a credit card or a home loan, the lender pulls the consumer's credit report by requesting it from one of the three major Credit Agencies.

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