Why are there 3 Credit Reporting Agencies?
If most credit cards are national cards, and we live in the digital age where information is zapped back and forth in nano seconds, then why do we still have 3 reporting agencies? Why did all 3 agencies come to be in the first place? The history of the origins of credit reporting companies makes sense. It used to be back in the pre-internet, pre-electronic age, that a local credit bureau had sprouted to track the local credit behavior of consumers. If you wanted credit for a car, a local credit bureau could report information collected on your local bank mortgage and that was used in the decision process. As the electronic age blossomed, these small bureaus grew and acquired other bureaus to become large regional credit bureaus. Trans Union dominated the midwest Equifax dominated the South and Experian had strong pockets on the west coast. Today, most large financial service companies report to all three credit agencies, which is why in most cases, a consumer’s FICO scores for each dat