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Articles » Free Annual Credit Report | | What Is The Difference Between The Credit Reports From The 3 Bureaus? |
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There are three major credit bureaus and they all offer a credit report and credit score that determines your credit worthiness to lenders. The three bureaus are Equifax, TransUnion and Experian. The reports that they offer are very similar and contain essentially the same information, but there are some differences.
Equifax is the only one of the three credit reporting bureaus that lays information out in a column format. This layout, once used by all the credit bureaus, makes the report easier to read and gives you a snapshot on the first page of all of your credit history. It begins with your personal information, a date of the report, a Social Security number, address, previous addresses, age and current employer. Everything else on the report is credit history, including public record information such as liens and bankruptcies, and going on to list accounts both past and current, payment histories, and anything that might be delinquent or in collection. There is also a category for credit inquiries.
TransUnion and Experian offer the same information but format it differently. TransUnion lays everything out into subsections that you can review individually as you go down the page. Experian is a little more organized. The pages of your credit report are broken down into sections like “information affecting your creditworthiness” and has footnotes when you have been the victim of identity theft that show up on the first page so lenders will know that it may be a reason why your credit score has been affected. Experian is much easier to read for a novice who has no knowledge of credit reports. Experian also provides the creditor’s name and address for all entries both negative and positive.
Each of the three credit bureaus scores your credit report with a system called a FICO Score. This method, developed by Fair Isaac Corporation, takes into account all of the information on payment histories, current lines of credit, and balances still due. Since each of the credit bureaus have different categories in their reports and not all of them have the same information, for instance some do not list late payments, you actually have three different FICO scores.
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