Is a Credit Bureau Required to Look at Information Directly From a Consumer?

The national credit bureaus keep track of your private financial data, but you, the consumer, have little influence on what is in your profile. If you send in data to the credit agencies, they will probably just ignore it, because you likely do not have the proper setup to send them data. Some alternative agencies, however, base their business model on looking at information from the consumer.

Requirements

The credit bureaus do not have to look at information you send to them, because only creditors that pay for and receive approval for a national credit bureau subscription service may report the status of loan accounts. Also, the credit bureaus have stringent reporting requirements for report updates. Lenders, for example, must send in data properly formatted using a universal data form (UDF).

Disputes

The one instance in which the credit bureaus must look at information is when you initiate a dispute. If you see a negative item erroneously reported to your profile, the national bureaus have 30 days to investigate your claim or remove the item in question from your report. Part of this investigation might involve you sending in documents to back your claim, such as a bank statement saying you paid off a debt. Even then, the agencies usually do not delve much into details of your evidence, because the bureaus automate the dispute process and convert evidence into alphanumeric code.

Alternative Agencies

As a result of the national bureaus excluding some trade lines from their reports, such as rent payments, alternative agencies popped up to gather this data. Alternative agencies do the reverse of the major bureaus: They charge consumers to verify their information. It usually costs $20 to $30 a month per bill for you to send a bill into an alternative credit bureau and have them verify your payment.

Tip

Most lenders use credit reports from the national reporting agencies rather than an alternative score, although they might consider a report from an alternative agency. Thus, you should put your efforts toward improving the trade lines that affect your traditional credit score, such as bank loans and credit cards. The providers of these types of accounts usually report to the bureaus automatically, but you should still ask the lender if he reports to all three national bureaus.