There are three official credit bureaus namely: Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. Equifax has two plans with several subsections under each, they are as follows:
Equifax premium products Equifax complete family planEquifax complete premierEquifax value productsEquifax completeEquifax core creditEquifax credit monitor
Equifax only Lenders
Only Pentagon Federal Credit Union exclusively uses Equifax. It is challenging to predict which credit bureau a credit card company will use because these businesses won’t publicly state which bureau they work with. Penfed was founded in 1935, has over $25 billion in revenue, and ranks third in the United States. It is generally impossible to determine which credit bureau a certain lending firm obtains its reports from because loan agencies rarely use data from a single credit bureau.
Credit Card Companies That Use Equifax
Discover
Chase
Citi
Citi has varieties of credit cards including Citi® Double cash card, Costco Anywhere Visa® Card by Citi, Citi Diamond Preferred Card, American Airlines AAdvantage mileup card, etc. Each card has its advantages, clients can earn thousands of credit points if in the first three months of opening an account the client spends up to $1,500. Citi uses Experian for credit card application processes, but for reporting gaps of a client they pull records from Equifax and TransUnion.
HSBC
The Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited (HSBC) operates in the Indo-Pacific region and other regions of the world. They have credit cards such as HSBC Elite Credit Card. One of the advantages of using their card is taking three rides per month and receiving a $5 Lyft App credit and much more. Recently, HSBC UK created the first live use case of open banking for credit applications using the InterConnect platform from Equifax. Previously, HSBC has been making use of the Experian credit bureau.
USAA
This is for those in the military and their families USAA Rate Advantage Visa Platinum Credit Card, USAA Preferred Cash Rewards Visa Signature Credit Card, and USAA Rewards Visa Signature Card. USAA sends credit card information to all three official credit bureaus, but USAA pulls 99% of its credit records from Equifax.
Reason Why Equifax Lenders Use More Than One Credit Bureau
Credit bureaus serve different geographical areas, and clients can come from different locations. This kind of situation brings about the need for two or more credit bureau records. Scoring models of an individual credit bureau are different, and to get a holistic view of their customer’s credit score. An average score from different credit bureaus gives better measurements of central tendency in data collection.
Conclusion
A credit bureau is a system that collects information about individual borrowers and sells it to other companies who are interested in knowing about your borrowing behavior, so your borrowing history is the best format to determine what will become of their money. The credit bureau has the information money lending agencies need to measure their risk and buy from them. Records show that Equifax is first among equals, and Penfed is the only one that pulls its records from Equifax only Lenders.
What is the information credit bureau does not ask for?
The credit bureau does not ask for your bounced cheque, income, ethnicity, political view, and gender.
How do I improve my credit score?
Keep your credit utilization rate low, keep your old account open, pay on time, limit applying for a new account, and review your credit report.
