Experian Credit Reporting Bureau

One of the three major credit reporting bureaus, doing business for over 30 years and with over 30,000 clients in North America.

Online Products
Experian offers cutting-edge tools to help manage and protect your credit information in real time.

Free Credit Report & Score from Experian

Address
Experian
475 Anton Blvd.
Costa Mesa, CA 92626

Phone
(714) 830-7000

Equifax Credit Reporting Bureau

One of the three major credit reporting bureaus, doing business for over 104 years.

Online Products
Equifax offers the four products to manage and protect your credit report information online.
Equifax Credit Watch
3-in-1 Credit Report
Score Power
Equifax Credit Report

Address
Equifax Information Services LLC
P.O. Box 740241
Atlanta, GA 30374

Phone
(800) 685-1111

FICO® is an acronym for Fair Isaac Credit Organization. Often, the terms "credit score" and "FICO score" are used generically to mean a score that is obtained from one of the three national credit reporting bureaus. These are also often referred to as "bureau scores."

Each of the three national credit reporting bureaus has its own credit scoring model: Trans Union Credit Bureau's scoring model is known as Empirica; Experian Credit Reporting Bureau's as FICO; and Equifax Credit Reporting Bureau’s as Beacon. Fair, Isaac and Company, developed all three models hence the acceptance of FICO score to generally mean your credit score.

These models are based solely on the information contained in the credit reporting bureaus credit reports. Because the credit data reported to each may differ and each model is unique, the same consumer likely will have a different FICO score from each of the three credit reporting bureaus at any given time.

Why You Need To Your Know 3 FICO Score Values
When determining your credit worthiness, many lenders and creditors will look at all three credit reports and all 3 FICO score values. Given that each of the three credit reporting bureaus may have different credit data and that each also has a different model for determining your FICO score, it is vital that you know all three.

How Lenders Use Your 3 FICO Score Values
The common practice for many lenders is to use the mid FICO score of the three credit reporting bureaus. Your mid FICO score is not the average of all three, but rather the score in the middle of the other two.

For instance, if you had the following FICO score values: 721, 699 and 675. Your mid FICO score would be 699 and that would be the FICO score used to determine credit worthiness and ultimately may determine if you get your request excepted and at what rate you will pay.

That may seem somewhat reasonable, right? But what about someone that has the following FICO score values: 751, 691 and 691. In this case, one of the credit reporting bureaus gave a tier 1 rating, the best rating, whereas the other two gave a much lower FICO score. Since the mid FICO score is 691, that is all the lender may use to determine your credit worthiness.

Therefore, if you are truly interested in managing your credit, it is very important for you to understand and manage your credit report with all three credit reporting bureaus.

Do this first and avoid any unpleasent surprises. Its easy to find errors on your credit report and have them fixed.

GET A FREE CREDIT CHECK NOW!