Experian, Equifax and Trans Union Credit Bureaus
Equifax began just before the dawn of the 20th century as the old Atlanta credit bureau. Called "Retail Credit
Company" in those days, it eventually bought almost all the other bureaus
throughout the American south and at one point even employed Welcome Wagon
ladies to spy for them. Nicely coifed women bearing coupons and other gifts
would greet the new neighbors and then make careful notes for headquarters
regarding demeanor, employment, race, religion, national origin, whether the
smell of alcohol was detected, and other subjective items deemed in those days
to correlate with credit risk. By the time the first version of the Fair Credit
Reporting Act was passed in 1971, "Retail Credit" deeply desired to shed
its besmirched name and reputation, so its bland new corporate moniker Equifax
was installed and history was duly forgotten.
Equifax Information
Services LLC
P.O. Box 740256
Atlanta, GA 30374
The TransUnion
we know today began when a railcar leasing company by that name decided in 1969
to buy Chicago's ancient bureau, the Credit Bureau of Cook County,
and then subsequently gobbled every other local bureau they could through the
1970s and 1980s. Interestingly, TransUnion today is privately
owned by the famous Pritzker family (of Hyatt Hotels
fame) and their tony friends through a
mysterious-sounding multi-billion dollar entity called the Marmon
Group. Lucky bunch. Apparently, buying and selling
personal information about others is a highly profitable enterprise. Perhaps
the Pritzker grandchildren will never need to hire
Lexington Law to straighten out their credit reports.
TransUnion
Post Office Box 2000
Chester, PA 19022
Great Universal Stores group now own Experian.
Experian was originally formed when two other
consumer reporting entities, TRW and Chilton, combined, then bought every other
similar business they could in California, Texas, and other western states, and finally sold itself.
1-888- Experian (1 888 397
3742)
So why do Americans blindly trust three credit bureaus with questionable
histories and cutthroat profit-seeking motivations to play such a critical role
in almost every aspect of their financial lives? And why do consumers sometimes
even feel guilty going up against these? It would be so easy now to turn the
discussion to topics like groupthink, status quo, and social complacency, but
I'll resist those academic explanations in favor of a tighter one:
Unfortunately, that's just the way it is.
Of course, by reading this, you've already begun to fight back.
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