We track a lot more than just your credit

They track consumers’ home addresses to their employment records

and salary information can also be up for grabs with Equifax.

Selling your secrets is how we make our money

According to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau — the major reporting bureau’s track about 63% of the U.S. population and sell some of that information to lenders. Selling data is a primary revenue source for the credit bureau industry, which had U.S. revenue of about $4 billion in 2011, according to the CFPB (Consumer Financial Protection Bureau). Bureaus also sell data to other companies, including insurers and debt collectors, as well as to consumers – this is where most of your solicitations from lenders, etc. come from!

What we know could cost you a new job

Roughly 47% of employers say they pull credit reports on some or all job applicants.

Good thing no one’s reporting on our mistakes. Oh, wait…

This month, the Federal Trade Commission released a study showing that one in five consumers has an error in at least one of their three credit reports. Some 13% of consumers had credit report errors that impacted their credit scores, while 5% had errors that could lead to paying more or being denied credit.

You all look so much alike…

In the last three months of 2011, 33% of credit disputes related to claims by a consumer that an account in their file did not belong to them, either because of an error or identity theft.  Many times the bureau’s only use the last 5 of your social and therefore credit information can become mis-filed.

… it’s tough to tell you apart from someone pretending to be you.

When consumers find out they’ve been a victim of identity theft — rather than the burden of proof being on the credit agency or lender — they have to provide the credit bureaus with evidence of their innocence.  Consumers can take some steps to avoid becoming victims of identity theft. For instance, they can place fraud alerts on their credit reports for free by contacting the credit bureaus

Consumers who learn a fraudulent account has been opened in their name should consider filing a police report and sending a letter with a copy of that report to the credit bureau and the lender who approved that account. In such cases, lenders will usually get fraudulent accounts removed from a credit report within 90 days.

Your ‘credit dispute’ doesn’t quite capture our attention

Credit bureaus recommend that consumers check their credit reports at least once a year (they can do this for free at annualcreditreport.com) and file a dispute if they notice any errors. But consumer advocates contend that the dispute system is broken.  Bureaus resolve an average of only 15% of consumer disputes internally, while the remaining 85% are passed on to the lenders or creditors who in turn pass it back to the bureau’s.

But bypass us on a dispute, and it’ll cost you

If you bypass the bureaus and contact the lender with your dispute, they won’t have the right to go to court if that lender claims there’s no error.  You should stick to dealing with the bureaus so that they don’t give up their legal right to a court case should they need it.

By the time you’re done fighting us, your toddler could be a teen

Consumer advocates contend there are few options for consumers, and they often require waiting to recover their true credit history for many years. Individuals who decide not to fight the bureaus will be stuck with the error for seven to 10 years — that’s the amount of time it takes for negative credit events, such as bankruptcies and foreclosures, to be automatically removed from a credit report.

Be careful what you pay for

One out of five consumers who purchase their credit score will likely receive a score that is “meaningfully different” than the one a lender would get.

There are many different scores, but the FICO score — a measure of credit risk that ranges from 300 to 850 and is calculated based on the data in credit reports from the three major credit bureaus — remains the most widely used in 90% of consumer and mortgage loan decisions.

Please see our previous post for more information on what you can do to improve your credit, and also this useful article.

This was a cliff notes version of an article from http://www.marketwatch.com/story/10-things-credit-bureaus-wont-say-2013-02-15?pagenumber=1