The Experian Credit Bureau
Experian is one of three main credit bureaus that record your credit history in a document known as a credit report. Every single person has a credit history since everyone needs debit cards, credit cards, contracts, loans, mortgages, and other such extensions of credit at one point in their lives, at the very least. All of these institutions (banks, retail companies, loan brokers, etc) report all of the details of your relationship with them including your balance, payment habits, and any disputes or discrepancies.
All of the information collected by Experian is used to determine each individual consumer’s credit rating, which is then made available to institutions interested in extending credit to a new client. They use the rating to determine the level of risk involved in loaning money to a particular person.
Experian was founded in Nottingham, England thirty years ago, and today own additional headquarters in Dublin, Ireland and Costa Mesa, California. While Experian is much younger than both Equifax and Trans Union Credit Bureaus, their statistics are impressive: over fifteen thousand employees in nearly forty countries, with a customer base distributed across sixty five countries and counting. Annual sales were recently estimated at roughly 4.1 billion dollars.
By law, every consumer has a right to obtain one free credit report per year from the credit bureau. Additional copies are permitted, however a fee will be charged. When going over your credit report, be sure to report any errors immediately. To do so, a letter of dispute explaining the error must be written and mailed, and an investigation will be launched.
It’s not only important to take errors in your financial history seriously; any kind of error must be corrected as soon as possible. For example, if your date of birth is incorrect, the inconsistency between the information on your credit report and a credit application may cause problems.
If there is a serious mistake on your report that is damaging to your credit and making your life difficult, it may be beneficial to hire a service to follow through with the dispute investigation for you. This is because credit bureaus are known for having a tedious and discouraging process for resolving such issues. In fact, this is so extreme a myth exists that it is illegal to dispute accurate credit reports. The truth is that the Fair Credit Reporting Act grants every consumer the right to launch an inquiry on any item listed within their reports.