Why 3-Bureau Credit Report?
Just as seeing 1/3 rd of your health report may not satisfy you, gaining access to merely 1/3 rd of your credit report from only one credit bureau makes no sense. Hence, to get a complete picture of your financial standing, you must have the credit report from all three major credit bureaus, namely, Equifax, TransUnion, and Experian.
The mentioned three national credit bureaus are responsible to take charge over every consumer’s credit information. While the credit report provided by each of these bureaus comprises in almost the same data, transactions and calculations, but the information collected by each of these bureaus and their ways of working are independent of one another.
Hence, a comparison of the three reports can help you find out any omissions or mistakes that may be present in any one of the credit reports. For instance, your credit card provider may have informed about your timely payment to Equifax and TransUnion but not to Experian. In that case, your credit report from Experian will have a lower credit score, in comparison to the scores given to you by Equifax and TransUnion.
Lenders does not necessarily check each of your credit reports and many times rely on merely any one of the reports provided by any one of these credit bureaus to decide if they should approve your loan request or not. So, it is your responsibility to ensure that everything in your credit report is in proper order. Otherwise, a lower credit score may result in you getting a higher interest rate on the loan amount, or a complete denial of your loan request when you had been prompt in your payments.
Major lending institutions and national banks usually make it a point to report all credit information to each of these bureaus. But there are some small banks and credit grantors that may report the consumers’ credit information to one or more of these credit bureaus or sometimes to none of the three bureaus. Therefore, it is always a good idea to compare the credit reports from all of these three bureaus.
The 3-in-1 report thereby provides you with your complete credit picture and you may review them bureau-by-bureau, line-by-line, and see if your credit report has been checked by any credit grantors recently. In short, you know why, what, when, of your financial report perfectly, the way lenders will view it. It is all facts and nothing is left to the imagination.