What is a Consumer Reporting Agency?
Under federal law, a “consumer reporting agency” is defined as any person, which for fees, dues, or on a cooperative nonprofit basis, regularly engages in the business of collecting and evaluating consumer credit information for the purpose of providing consumer reports to authorized third parties.
A consumer reporting agency is actually designed to help creditors determine whether to extend loans to borrowers (consumers). It may also be called a credit bureau or a credit reporting agency. In the US, there are three big agencies that banks and other lending companies may contact to determine the creditworthiness of a potential borrower. These are Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. All three have access to the same information and can produce credit reports and credit scoring when requested. Another consumer reporting agency that is recent in establishment is Pay Rent, Build Credit (PRBC). The main difference between this agency and others is that it focuses on customer reporting of timely payments, such as payments of rent, car payments and et cetera. Consumers have to enroll and do their own reporting, but it’s a completely different approach. The traditional consumer reporting agency focuses only on the negative, when you failed to meet credit obligations, whereas PRBC focuses
