The biggest difference between TransUnion and Equifax is that TransUnion reports your employment history and personal information. The other two credit reporting agencies report only the name of your employer. This is the major difference in Equifax's scoring model.
Is TransUnion more important than Equifax? The short answer is no. Both TransUnion and Equifax are reliable credit reporting agencies that compile reports and calculate your credit scores using different scoring models.
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.
An Equifax credit score isn't used by lenders or creditors to assess a consumers' creditworthiness. Instead, many lenders use FICO Scores® to help determine a potential borrower's creditworthiness. FICO uses credit scores from the three reporting agencies, including Equifax and Transunion, to determine their score.
In conclusion, auto lenders use Equifax and Experian the most, while TransUnion is less used for auto loan credit checks, at least in some parts of the US.
Experian is the largest credit bureau in the United States. Still, it's not the only entity that houses consumer financial data. Equifax and TransUnion are the other major credit reporting agencies lenders, and creditors turn to for credit reports and scores used to make lending decisions.
Payment History Is the Most Important Factor of Your Credit Score. Payment history accounts for 35% of your FICO® Score.
TransUnion is Accurate, But May Conflict With Other Scores
Unfortunately, errors can happen from time to time. FICO and VantageScore both use a range of 300 to 850 to categorize credit scores.
Best Overall AnnualCreditReport.com
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau confirms that AnnualCreditReport.com is the official website that allows you to access each of your credit reports from all three of the major credit bureaus — Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion — at no cost.
The credit scores and reports you see on Credit Karma should accurately reflect your credit information as reported by those bureaus. This means a couple of things: The scores we provide are actual credit scores pulled from two of the major consumer credit bureaus, not just estimates of your credit rating.
As you can see in the chart below, a Good credit score under the VantageScore model (typically used by TransUnion and Equifax) falls between 700 and 749. Similarly, a good credit score under the FICO Score model falls between 670 and 739. Source: By these guidelines, yes —a 700 score would be considered a Good 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.
The middle credit score is most significant when buying a house because mortgage companies ignore the highest and lowest number provided by Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion.
This is because individual consumer reporting agencies, credit scoring companies, lenders and creditors may use slightly different formulas to calculate your credit scores. They might also weigh your information differently depending on the type of credit account for which you've applied.
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.
If you've had credit in the past but no longer use credit cards, or you have closed accounts on your report, there won't be recent activity to produce a score for you. And even if you have recent credit activity, you still may not have scores if your lenders don't report to the bureaus.
A 725 credit score is a good credit score. The good-credit range includes scores of 700 to 749, while an excellent credit score is 750 to 850, and people with scores this high are in a good position to qualify for the best possible mortgages, auto loans and credit cards, among other things.
Your score falls within the range of scores, from 670 to 739, which are considered Good.
To a mortgage lender, FICO scores of 670 and above are considered 'good. ' Although the best interest rates typically go to borrowers with credit scores of 720 or higher.
This is mainly because of two reasons: For one, lenders may pull your credit from different credit bureaus, whether it is Experian, Equifax or TransUnion. Your score can then differ based on what bureau your credit report is pulled from since they don't all receive the same information about your credit accounts.
As many people discovered, Credit Karma does not use the same scoring system as major lenders. It's not so much that Credit Karma's score is wrong, it's just that they use a different measurement system.
Credit Karma touts that it will always be free to the consumers who use its website or mobile app. But how accurate is Credit Karma? In some cases, as seen in an example below, Credit Karma may be off by 20 to 25 points.
How to access your report. You can request a free copy of your credit report from each of three major credit reporting agencies – Equifax®, Experian®, and TransUnion® – once each year at AnnualCreditReport.com or call toll-free 1-877-322-8228.
Lenders may not report to all three credit bureaus
Because of this difference in reporting, each of the three credit bureaus may have slightly different credit report information for you and you may see different scores as a result.