If you simply want more control over your credit report and credit score, Experian offers the most bang for your buck in terms of personal credit monitoring and identity protection. However, TransUnion offers the most business-related products.
A: As a general matter, no one credit bureau report is “more important” than the others. In today's economic environment, they are all vitally critical to your personal finances.
Experian indicates how much longer any given account will remain on the credit history. It also lists the monthly balance history for each account. 2 Experian has a slight edge over Equifax because it tends to track recent credit searches more thoroughly.
While both TransUnion and Experian have some similarities, Experian offers a more robust suite of consumer services. It also reveals your FICO Score 8—the score most lenders use—which can give you a better idea of what lenders see than the VantageScore that TransUnion provides.
The most accurate credit scores are the latest versions of the FICO Score and VantageScore credit-scoring models: FICO Score 8 and VantageScore 3.0.
Credit scores help lenders evaluate whether they want to do business with you. The FICO® Score☉ , which is the most widely used scoring model, falls in a range that goes up to 850. The lowest credit score in this range is 300. But the reality is that almost nobody has a score that low.
Answer provided by. “In general, lenders have a preferred credit report between Equifax, Experian, or TransUnion. However, they may pull more than one credit report if they can't determine if you qualify for a loan based on one.
This is due to a variety of factors, such as the many different credit score brands, score variations and score generations in commercial use at any given time. These factors are likely to yield different credit scores, even if your credit reports are identical across the three credit bureaus—which is also unusual.
Equifax and Experian are the most commonly used credit bureaus by auto lenders.
For a score with a range between 300 and 850, a credit score of 700 or above is generally considered good. A score of 800 or above on the same range is considered to be excellent. Most consumers have credit scores that fall between 600 and 750.
Experian is trusted by millions of consumers and businesses and is safe to use. Their free and premium services are readily available but with several layers of protection to shield your information from fraudsters.
Although ranges vary depending on the credit scoring model, generally credit scores from 580 to 669 are considered fair; 670 to 739 are considered good; 740 to 799 are considered very good; and 800 and up are considered excellent.
The scoring model used in mortgage applications
While the FICO® 8 model is the most widely used scoring model for general lending decisions, banks use the following FICO scores when you apply for a mortgage: FICO® Score 2 (Experian) FICO® Score 5 (Equifax)
While Experian and Equifax are the most popular bureaus among auto lenders and car dealers, TransUnion can also be used for auto loan decisions. And the truth is, the credit bureau lenders use when evaluating your auto loan application probably will not influence their decision too much.
Auto dealerships use the FICO credit bureau, which stands for Fair Isaac Corporation. They also use the FICO Auto Credit Score, which has a range of 250 to 900. This may mean that an auto dealer has a different credit score for you than the one you see on your personal credit report.
The credit bureaus may have different information.
And a lender may report updates to different bureaus at different times. So, it's possible that Equifax and TransUnion could have different credit information on your reports, which could lead to your TransUnion score differing from your Equifax score.
Because there are varied scoring models, you'll likely have different scores from different providers. Lenders use many different types of credit scores to make lending decisions. The score you see when you check it may not be the same as the one used by your lender.
A good score with TransUnion and VantageScore® 3.0 is between 720 and 780. As your score climbs through and above this range, you can benefit from the increased freedom and flexibility healthy credit brings. Some people want to achieve a score of 850, the highest credit score possible.
A FICO score of 650 is considered fair—better than poor, but less than good. It falls below the national average FICO® Score of 710, and solidly within the fair score range of 580 to 669.
Banks and Stores
Experian, TransUnion and Equifax are the three largest credit reporting agencies, and most major banks use them to come up with a combined FICO score. International financial organizations such as Barclays, HSBC, Morgan Stanley, MBNA and Nationwide are examples of those that rely on Experian.
Your Equifax score is lower than the other credit scores because there is a slight difference in what is reported to each credit agency and each one uses a slightly different method to score your data.
Three major credit reporting agencies provide credit reports: Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. 1 2 3 These may be the safest routes to obtaining your credit history, which ultimately affects your personal credit score.
Both TransUnion and Equifax are reliable credit reporting agencies that compile reports and calculate your credit scores using different scoring models.