Credit bureaus play a large role in your financial life and you may never have any direct dealings with them. These are companies that keep track of a great deal of credit information on you and every other consumer. They create a credit report on you and the information that they have could affect whether or not you can get financing.
What Do Credit Bureaus Do?
Credit bureaus are organizations that keep track of your payments and interactions with your creditors. Every creditor that you have has the ability to report your account information to the credit bureaus. The credit bureaus keep track of whether you are making your payments on time and what your account balances with each creditor are. They compile all of this information in an easy-to-read format known as your credit report. Lenders then turn to the credit bureaus when they need information about you.
Who Are the Credit Bureaus?
Even though many people are familiar with the idea of credit bureaus, they may not actually know much about them. The credit bureaus are not government agencies and do not have any specific powers granted to them by law. They are private companies that simply collect information from creditors. The three major credit bureaus are TransUnion, Experian and Equifax. While other credit bureaus do exist, these three collect the majority of information about consumers in the United States.
Who is the Fair Isaacs Corporation?
Fair Isaacs Corporation is a company that is closely tied to the credit bureaus. Fair Isaacs Corporation developed a formula for computing credit scores. This is known as the FICO score and it is used by all three of the major credit bureaus. It is a numerical representation of your credit history. Lenders can easily look at your FICO score to determine what type of borrower you are.
Can You Contact the Credit Bureaus?
Even though you may not ever have any need to contact a credit bureau, you can contact them if you choose to. Most of the time, your creditors are the only ones who provide them with information. You can get copies of your credit report to review them for errors. You can get a free copy of your credit report every year from each credit bureau. If you find something wrong in your credit report, you can call the credit bureaus or write to them to dispute the matter.
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