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Consumer Reporting Agencies: The Companies That Keep a File on You

A consumer reporting agency is any company that assembles information about you and sells it to businesses making decisions about you — credit, an apartment, a job, insurance, or a checking account. Most people know the big three. There are dozens of others, and the specialty agencies are where errors are hardest to catch, because you rarely learn what is in the file until you have already been denied. Pick a category below to see the agencies we handle disputes and lawsuits against.

What Is a Consumer Reporting Agency?

Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, a consumer reporting agency is not limited to Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. Any company that regularly gathers information on consumers and furnishes reports to third parties for credit, employment, housing, or insurance decisions is covered — which sweeps in tenant screening companies, employment background check vendors, check and bank account screening databases, insurance and property loss databases, and the subprime bureaus that sell alternative-credit data to payday and auto lenders.

Every one of these companies owes you the same core obligations: it must follow reasonable procedures to assure maximum possible accuracy, it must give you a copy of your file when you ask, and it must reinvestigate an item you dispute rather than passing the dispute along and rubber-stamping whatever the source says. Those duties are what most of our cases are built on.

Types of Consumer Reporting Agencies

Credit Reporting AgenciesEquifax, Experian, and TransUnion — who they are, how to dispute errors, and where to send disputes by mail.Know More →Subprime & Alternative-Credit BureausClarity, MicroBilt, SageStream, DataX, and Teletrack — the bureaus behind payday and subprime loan denials, and how to fix an error.Know More →Background Check CompaniesThe screening companies behind employment background checks, and how to fix an inaccurate report under the FCRA.Know More →Tenant Screening CompaniesSafeRent, CoreLogic, TransUnion SmartMove, and RealPage — and what to do when a rental screening report is wrong.Know More →Check & Bank ScreeningChexSystems, Early Warning, and TeleCheck — the databases that can block a bank account or bounce a check.Know More →Property & Insurance ReportsC.L.U.E. and the property and insurance databases that quietly shape your premiums and claims.Know More →

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    We use what you send only to review your inquiry and respond to it. If we need documents, we will ask — please do not send them before we ask, and please do not put Social Security numbers or account numbers into the form. Using this form does not create a lawyer-client relationship. Privacy Policy

    If a consumer reporting agency or a furnisher left an error in place after you disputed it, our page on the FCRA lawsuit sets out who can be sued, what the statute allows you to recover, and how long you have to file. Where the error is another person’s account on your file, see mixed credit report lawsuit. If you are still at the dispute stage, our page on the credit report dispute lawyer covers what happens before a claim.

    Pages on this site for the companies named above: ChexSystems, Teletrack, DataX, SageStream, MicroBilt, TransUnion SmartMove, TransUnion.