Who Are The Three Major Credit Bureaus And What Do They Do

There are three major credit bureaus that report consumer financial information. Those bureaus are Experian, TransUnion and Equifax.

About Equifax

Equifax is the oldest of the three credit bureaus. The credit reporting bureau was founded as the Retail Credit Company in 1899.  They have been reporting consumer information and providing it in reports to lenders for more than 100 years. Equifax maintains information on more than 400 million consumers worldwide. The credit bureau is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia and employs approximately 7,000 people in 15 countries throughout North America, Latin America and Europe.

About Experian

Experian is the largest of the three credit bureaus. John Peace founded CNN Systems, a credit reporting company in 1980 in Nottingham, England. In 1996, Experian – then a U.S. based company, formerly TRW Information Services – merged with CNN Systems. Today, Experian operates in 40 countries throughout the world and employs more than 15,000 people. The corporate headquarters for Experian is in Dublin, Ireland. Operational headquarters are located in Nottingham, England and Costa Mesa California.

About TransUnion

TransUnion was formed in 1968 by the Union Tank Car Company, a rail car holding company. The company entered the credit business when they acquired the Credit Bureau of Cook County in 1969 and grew in size after purchasing major city credit bureaus. TransUnion was a subsidiary of Marmon Group and was acquired in 1981. The TransUnion headquarters is in Chicago. They maintain credit histories on an estimated 500 million consumers worldwide.

What kind of information do the credit bureaus report?

Each of the credit bureaus collect financial and personal information on consumers. This information includes the consumer's name, address, social security number, place of employment, open and closed credit accounts, credit inquiries, and public records and collection items. The credit bureaus sell the information to lenders in a credit report. Lenders use the credit report to evaluate the consumer's credit worthiness. If a credit report contains too many overdue payments or inquiries in response to the consumer's application for credit, lenders may deny a consumer's application for credit.

For more information about the three major credit bureaus, contact Equifax, Experian or TransUnion. If you would like to learn more about debt related matters, contact an NCO Financial Systems, Inc. representative. Contact information for NCO Financial Systems, Inc. can be found on every page here on our Consumer Help Unit website.

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