Managing financial health has become extremely crucial and difficult in today’s world; with the rise in fraudulent activities, the difficulty of the task increases.
Moreover, besides banks, other credit monitoring and reporting agencies keep an eye on the financial health of individuals and businesses, thereby helping them manage it.
Equifax, Transunion, and Experian are the most popular and common credit reporting agencies.
Key Takeaways
- Equifax and TransUnion are major credit reporting agencies that collect and maintain consumer credit information.
- Equifax operates in more countries than TransUnion.
- TransUnion and Equifax might have different information, as not all creditors report to both agencies.
Equifax vs Transunion
Equifax, founded in 1899, is one of the oldest credit reporting agencies in the United States. TransUnion, founded in 1968, is another major credit reporting agency that provides credit reports and scores to businesses and consumers, offering identity theft protection and credit monitoring services.
Equifax, in simple terms, refers to an American multinational agency that handles the reports of credits of consumers. It monitors the credit scores of individuals and businesses.
The credit score of an individual or a company, as calculated by Equifax, is done on the basis of some key factors. These key factors include repayment history, credit utilization ratio, utilization of the type of credit, and credit history length.
With the information of about 1 billion consumers at an individual level and 65,000 customers at a global business level, Transunion has come a long way as a consumer credit agency of American origin.
Spreading over more than 30 countries, Transunion manages the credit score of individuals or businesses. As calculated by Transunion, credit scores get most affected by two factors: payment history and credit history.
Comparison Table
| Parameters Of Comparison | Equifax | Transunion |
|---|---|---|
| User Base | Equifax has a user base of 800 million individual customers, 80 million businesses and spreads across 15 countries. | Transunion has a user base of 1 billion individual customers, 65000 businesses, and spreads across 30 countries. |
| Factors affecting credit scores | The factors which affect the credit scores of an individual/business as calculated by Equifax are:Payment HistoryCredit Utilisation RatioAge of the CreditTotal Accounts | The factors which affect the credit scores of an individual/business as calculated by Transunion are:Repayment HistoryCUR (Credit Utilisation Ratio)Number of accounts, i.e., credit accountsAge of credit linesNumber of times credit inquiries have been made. |
| Methods of calculating scores | Equifax calculates the credit scores of an individual or a business on the basis of a credit history of 81 months, where every open account and closed account of the individual or the business are taken into account. | Transunion calculates the credit scores of an individual or a business on the basis of a credit history of 7 years. |
| Features of Equifax’s credit reports | The main features of credit reports of an individual or the company, as calculated by Equifax, are:Identification and contact details of the individual/business.Credit summaryRecent activityAccount details | The main features of credit reports of an individual or the company, as calculated by Transunion, are:Personal Information of the individual/business.Credit InformationEmployment HistoryPublic Records |
| Popular products | Some popular products by Equifax include:Basic Credit Information ReportEquifax Risk ScoreEnhanced Credit Information ReportEquifax AlertsEquifax Portfolio Review | Some popular products by Transunion include:Account Monitoring & Advanced AnalyticsCustomer Credit ReportingDebt RecoveryFinLockerFraud Analytics |
What is Equifax?
The number of credit reporting companies and agencies is springing up quickly. However, the three notable agencies continue to dominate their space in this field.
After Experian, Transunion, and Equifax follow up the list as the top three credit reporting companies with the highest user base.
With the information of about 800 million consumers at an individual level and 80 million customers at a global business level, Equifax has come a long way since its founding in 1899.
Founded by Cator Woolford and Guy Woolford, Equifax operates globally in more than 15 countries. The credit reports of an individual or business put forward by Equifax are highly detailed.
Every single account, irrespective of whether it’s closed or open, and every single transaction is recorded. Equifax collects its information from creditors such as credit card and mortgage companies to keep the records updated with accurate information.
To maintain transparency in reports from all sides, Equifax also keeps a record of the individual or the business’s public records, including bankruptcies and other such cases.
The customer credit database of Equifax has a large reach in terms of geographical coverage. Moreover, all information is updated regularly with the use of sophisticated technology involving matching logic.
The credit score can give you an idea about your financial health and personal credit health.
What is Transunion?
Just like Equifax, Transunion is another credit reporting agency and the smallest among the top 3 notable agencies. Transunion also monitors the credit scores and reports of businesses and individuals.
However, Transunion doesn’t have the feature to display the complete record of transactions and accounts by which one can know if the account will get closed on account of a low credit score.
Nevertheless, Transunion has other helpful features wherein it includes employment data and the history of an individual in its credit reports. With the help of this feature, individuals have the freedom to change, correct and update their employment details.
Besides credit reports, Transunion also has some other features, such as credit monitoring, wherein it acts as a watchdog to an individual’s credit scores, thereby protecting it from all kinds of fraudulent activities.
This credit-monitoring package comes at an affordable monthly package where even a victim who has fallen into the trap of fraudulent activities can recover from the financial damage.
Founded in 1968 by Christopher Cartwright, Transunion offers other features such as advanced analytics, account monitoring, account prioritization, audience segmentation, customer engagement, customer credit reporting, customer acquisition, debt recovery, digital lending, fraud analytics, identity proofing, and others.
Main Differences Between Equifax and Transunion
- While Equifax has a coverage of around fifteen countries, which includes about eight hundred million individuals and eighty million business-level customers, Transunion has a coverage of around thirty countries, including about one billion individuals and sixty-five thousand million business-level customers.
- The credit scores released by Equifax depend on payment history, credit utilization ratio, age of the credit, and total accounts and are independent of the number of times credit inquiries have been made.
- On the other hand, The credit scores released by Transunion depend on all the factors, including the number of times credit inquiries are made.
- The credit scores calculated by Equifax are calculated according to a credit history of eighty-one months. However, the credit scores calculated by Transunion are calculated according to a credit history of seven years.
- The credit reports released by Equifax include identification & contact details, credit summary, recent activity, and account details of the individual, which doesn’t include employment history.
- The credit reports released by Transunion include all the factors, including employment history.
- Equifax has some beneficial popular products such as basic credit information reports, Equifax risk scores, etc. Whereas Transunion’s popular products include account monitoring & advanced analytics, customer credit reporting, fraud analytics, etc.
- https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3103294
- https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/S0733-558X(2010)000030A008/full/html
Last Updated : 13 July, 2023
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Chara Yadav holds MBA in Finance. Her goal is to simplify finance-related topics. She has worked in finance for about 25 years. She has held multiple finance and banking classes for business schools and communities. Read more at her bio page.
I feel this article is biased in favor of Equifax. It doesn’t fairly represent Transunion’s features and capabilities.
The comparison table is very well laid out and gives a clear understanding of how Equifax and Transunion differ. Excellent work!
The irony of saying ‘just like Equifax’ before describing Transunion’s limitations is quite amusing. It’s like saying ‘just like a Mercedes’ before highlighting its lack of key features.
I think the article provides a fair comparison of Equifax and Transunion, but I do see your point, Dhunter!
Good one, Dhunter! The article does seem to have a subtle hint of favoritism towards Equifax.
This is an extremely informative article that has helped me understand the differences between Equifax and Transunion clearly. It’s great to have all this comprehensive information in one place.
Absolutely, Florence. It’s always great to have such detailed information about these credit reporting agencies.
The rise in fraudulent activities certainly makes managing financial health a challenging task. Both Equifax and Transunion have their unique offerings, and this article has done a great job of highlighting that.
This article seems to be singing praises for Equifax while subtly undermining Transunion. A more balanced representation would have been appreciated.
I agree, Richards. It’s important to present a fair evaluation of both credit reporting agencies.
I think the article’s intention was to provide a comprehensive comparison, but the presentation might have led to some bias.