Which Credit Report is Most Accurate?
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You probably know that you have three credit reports, but did you know there are various ways to access them? Each person is entitled to one free credit report from each of the three credit bureaus every 12 months. However, you can also get updated reports all year long, sometimes with your credit score, from several credit and identity monitoring companies.
It’s important to note that your credit report lists all of your available credit and loan accounts and details of your payment history. It shows how responsible you are with credit. Think of it as a report card for your finances. Your credit score is more like your GPA. A proprietary algorithm takes the data on your credit report and calculates a three-digit number between 300 and 850. Just like in school, the higher, the better.
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What’s included in your credit report?
Every credit report includes four primary areas of content: your personal information, your credit history, credit inquiries, and public records.
Your personal information includes your name, any variations of your name that you’ve used, and current and previous addresses. Also included are current and past employers, your date of birth, and Social Security number.
The credit history section shows all accounts you’ve had open within the past ten years. This includes open and closed ones, with notations of the current status. You will see the date at which the account will no longer be included in your history for closed accounts. This should be seven years from the date it was closed.
Your credit inquiries section shows the number of hard and soft credit pulls you’ve had within the last 24 months. Even though the soft pulls have no impact on your credit score, they are a part of your credit report.
The public records section shows financial events that affect your credit negatively. This includes bankruptcies, tax liens, and civil judgments like child support. All of these derogatory marks may stay on your credit report for up to ten years, though their impact may decrease as time passes.
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Your credit report may include a credit score
Your free credit reports do not come with a credit score, but some credit monitoring companies include a credit score. These companies generally use FICO 8 or VantageScore 3.0. These are the two most common types of credit scores, with the majority of lenders using the FICO credit score.
Your FICO score is created based on the information contained in your credit report. According to MyFico, here are the factors that influence your credit score:
- 35% is based on your payment history
- 30% is based on the amount that you owe
- 15% is based on the length of your credit history
- 10% is based on your mix of credit (credit cards, auto loan, mortgage)
- 10% is based on new credit
Credit Score Ranges | Your Credit |
300-579 | Poor |
580-669 | Fair |
670-739 | Good |
740-799 | Very good |
800-850 | Excellent |
Which credit report is most accurate?
Since you can get a free copy of each of your three credit reports annually, you may think that you’ll start with the most accurate one. Unfortunately, none of the three is better than the other. To get a complete view of your credit report, you need to check all three credit reports offered by the major credit bureaus.
The most accurate credit report is the one that includes all of your loans and credit accounts and is error-free. For you, this may be TransUnion, but for your partner, it might be Experian.
Because of the nature of credit, mixed with the inevitably of human error and the passage of time, no one report is more accurate than the others. Let’s look at the specific reasons that credit reports are different.
Why credit reports are different
While all three of the credit reporting bureaus may have the same information, it’s likely that when you get a copy of them, you find slightly different report information and three different credit scores.
Here are three reasons why:
1. Lenders provide data to just one or two credit reporting agencies
Your Visa credit card will almost certainly be on all three. As will your Nelnet student loan. But your auto loan from your hometown bank may only be reported to one of the credit bureaus. It’s up to the lender's discretion to report your payments, and a smaller lender is less likely to take the time and effort to report to all three.
Similarly, landlords don’t always report tenant payments. You may find that your credit report shows payments made when you lived in a large apartment complex in Chicago. But after moving to a single-family home in the suburbs owned by a mom-and-pop landlord. This is common and probably doesn’t influence your credit score much if you have other types of credit.
Also, utility companies generally don’t report to the credit bureaus, meaning you don’t get credit for your payment history. However, you can use Experian Boost to add accounts to your credit report, which may give your credit score a boost. After creating a free account with Experian, you should add three consecutive months of on-time payments per the requirements. Some people see their credit score rise by several points almost instantly.
2. Errors on your credit report
To err is human. It’s certainly possible that data entry clerks in the billing department occasionally transpose numbers in a Social Security number or list you as John David Smith rather than John Dave Smith. This may cause someone else's debt to be listed on your credit report.
The only way you’ll know if this has happened is to read through your three credit reports. Yes, all three because it could be on just one. This is why it’s essential to, at minimum, get your three free copies each year.
3. When you check your credit report
The timing of when you check your credit report is important. This is probably obvious if you’re checking your reports on a one-report-every-four-months schedule. However, if you check all three of your reports over a week or month, you may notice some differences.
Two days ago, I requested a credit limit increase from one of my credit cards. When I checked today, it was noted on all three credit reports. Had I checked one report three days ago and another one today, I would have noticed a difference in both the credit score and credit utilization percentage. My credit score was up by two points, and my credit usage percentage was down by one percent.
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Credit reporting bureaus
AnnualCreditReport.com
While AnnualCreditReport.com isn’t a credit bureau, this is the website that’s run in partnership with all three credit bureaus to provide Americans with easy access to their credit reports. It takes less than five minutes to fill out the data required for you to gain access to each of your three credit reports.
To request your free credit report by mail, you can fill out a mail request form and send it to:
Annual Credit Report Request Service
P.O. Box 105281
Atlanta, GA 30348-5281
Alternatively, you can call 877-322-8228 to request your credit report. Upon verifying your identity, your credit reports will be sent within 15 days.
Equifax credit report
From the Equifax website, you can access your free credit report on AnnualCreditReport.com. You can sign up for Equifax's premium service for those who want additional credit and identity monitoring. I love that it has a family plan (two adults and up to four kids) so you can keep tabs on the entire family easily.
The premium service includes 3-bureau monitoring and your VantageScore credit score. You also get automatic fraud alerts, lost wallet protection, and identity restoration assistance.
Experian credit report
When you create a free account with Experian, you can get a free copy of your credit report and take advantage of Experian Boost. This service lets you add rent and utility payments to your credit report, thus boosting your credit score and strengthening your credit report.
Experian has a paid service that gives you one-time access to all three credit reports plus your FICO 8 credit score like the other credit bureaus. The monthly membership provides additional services like updated credit reports and identity and credit monitoring. This is a side-by-side comparison of my FICO scores from all three credit bureaus on Experian’s website.
TransUnion credit report
You can sign up for TransUnion's premium service for those who want access to their TransUnion credit report beyond their one free copy per year. For a monthly $24.95 fee, you get access to your credit report, and ID monitoring includes unlimited support from their ID theft monitoring team and up to $1 million in ID theft insurance.
You are alerted to any changes in your credit report, including new accounts, balance increases, and suspicious activity. You also get email updates on any changes to your credit reports. You can also easily lock and unlock your TransUnion and Equifax credit reports from the website.
Credit Saint takes action to fix unfair or inaccurate negative items harming your credit.
- 90-day money-back guarantee
- Free consultation
- 200k happy customers
- 19 years experience
- 11,000+ five-star reviews
Credit monitoring companies
For an easy way to check up on your credit and credit score, you can use one of these services throughout the year.
Credit Karma
Credit Karma is a totally free service that gives you access to your credit report based on your TransUnion and Equifax credit reports. It also shows you your VantageScore 3.0, and gives you personal finance tips and suggestions on credit cards if you’re looking to open a new credit account.
I really like their identity monitoring component because it shows which data breaches my personal information was exposed to. It gives direction on what should be done and suggests (and show how to) freeze my credit report so that new credit accounts cannot be issued unless I unfreeze it.
Credit Sesame
With Credit Sesame, you get free access to your VantageScore and your TransUnion credit report data. You can upgrade to the premium plan for $15.95 a month to receive access to all three of your reports. Other benefits of the premium service include 24/7 access to ID theft specialists, rent reporting, advanced identity theft monitoring, and up to $1 million in ID theft insurance.
I like how Credit Sesame gives you a letter grade, A through F, for each component of your credit report. For example, my mix of credit accounts is poor (I only have credit cards; no loans), so I have a D, but I have A's for both when it comes to the credit utilization and length of credit history. It suggests ways to increase your creditworthiness by paying down debt, taking out a loan, or adding a credit card to increase the number of credit accounts you have.
MyFico
To get the best insight into your FICO score, MyFico is the place to go. While it does show you all versions of your FICO scores, this info is not free. The lowest-priced monthly service gives you access to one credit report updated every three months, while the highest tier gives you 3-bureau credit reports updated monthly. Plans start at $19.95 per month but can be canceled at any time.
The educational content at MyFico is excellent since it came straight from the company that creates the algorithm that calculates your FICO score. It cites that as many as 90% of lenders use FICO scores rather than other credit scoring models like VantageScore. You can learn about the various versions and what’s included in new updates.
Credit report costs
Here’s a quick comparison of which credit report you can check and where. AnnualCreditReport.com is the only place that gives you all three credit reports for free.
Cost | Credit Bureau | |
AnnualCreditReport.com | Free | All three |
Credit Karma | Free | TransUnion & Equifax |
Credit Sesame | $15.95/month | All three |
MyFico | $19.95/month | Experian |
Equifax | Free | Equifax |
Experian | Free | Experian |
TransUnion | Free | TransUnion |
You are also eligible for a free credit report if you meet certain criteria, such as searching for a job, receiving public assistance, or are the victim of identity theft.
Credit Saint takes action to fix unfair or inaccurate negative items harming your credit.
- 90-day money-back guarantee
- Free consultation
- 200k happy customers
- 19 years experience
- 11,000+ five-star reviews
Fixing an error on your credit report
To fix an error on your credit report, you’ll need to contact each credit report that lists the error. The Federal Trade Commission gives directions on how to handle any error you may encounter. Sometimes it’s simply that another person’s debt is being attributed to you. Or it could turn out that you’re a victim of identity theft.
It can take up to 30 days for the error to be investigated and slightly longer to be removed and reflected on your credit report. Once you spot an error, report it immediately so that your credit is cleaned up immediately.
The bottom line
It would be really nice if a single credit report was the best, but there’s not. The best way to ensure that your credit reports show exactly what they should be is to monitor them yourself. Using the free credit reports is the best place to start. For most people, it’s enough to get one report every four months. You can take 20 minutes to read over it and compare it to your previous ones. If there’s an error, you can report it to the credit bureau.
For those who want the extra protection of credit monitoring and knowing their FICO score, MyFico is a good choice because you can see the score that most lenders use. The VantageScore is nice, but I noticed it was more than 50 points higher than my FICO score. This can make a big difference in interest rates when you’re applying for a loan.
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Writer
Charlotte Edwards is an educator-turned-freelance writer based in Beijing, China. She writes personal finance and parenting content for both digital and print publications around the world.
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