A Credit Bureau, also known as a Credit Reporting Agency or Consumer Reporting Agency, functions as a central repository of credit and collection records, payment history and certain legal information on consumers and businesses. These records are sold to credit grantors and lenders whenever a consumer or business applies for credit. The three major U.S. credit bureaus are Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. A fourth credit bureau, Dun and Bradstreet Corp., specializes in reporting business credit information exclusively.



Local credit bureaus first appeared in the United States around 1860 and were primarily designed to provide local merchants with a way to keep tabs on local citizens who traded in the merchant's immediate community. Credit bureaus began to spread across the country after the end of World War I when returning soldiers began looking for money to buy homes, automobiles and consumer goods.

As credit purchases began to replace cash as the primary currency for the purchase of big-ticket items, and the nation became more mobile, the need for national credit bureaus became apparent.

Today's credit bureaus store over 1 billion consumer and business records, and almost 2 billion individual credit transactions are entered into those records every month. With all of this activity there is always a chance that a credit record may contain errors. That's why the U.S. Government passed the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) and the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act of 2003 (FACTA). Both of these acts set out requirements for credit bureaus to maintain fair and accurate records, provide a way for consumers to view those records, and respond to consumer complaints of inaccuracies should they exist.

The introduction of the Internet, and the World Wide Web in particular, gave lenders a new and profitable way to make credit-based lending decisions on-line and “instantly”. This made it possible for charge card issuers and lenders to offer credit to consumers who were willing to fill out credit applications online. Key information from the application, including the applicant's full name, address, Social Security Number and date of birth is transmitted over the Internet to the lender's particular credit bureau. The credit bureau's computers look up the consumer's record and calculate a credit score based upon certain financial criteria. If the score is above the lender's minimum threshold, the application is instantly approved and both the lender and the borrower are notified.

Under Federal law, all U.S. residents are entitled to one free copy of their credit report annually, from each of the three major credit bureaus, without any cost or obligation. Visit AnnualCreditReport.com for details.