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What differences are there between each credit bureau's report? Which one should I request?*

I'm going to order a copy of my credit report from one of the big three agencies. Since I only get one free report from each agency per year, I'm going to wait a few months before ordering the next one from a different agency. So, what differences are there in the reports from one agency to the next? Is any one of them preferable somehow, and so I should order that one first? Thanks! I know that I can get all 3 at the same time, but then I wouldn't be able to get ANY free reports at all for an entire year after that. If I stagger it and only get a report from one agency at a time, I can check my credit report for free every 4 months, and I can keep doing that indefinitely. This seems wiser to me, so that if something goes awry, I'm more likely to find out about it sooner.

Answers:

1) Actually, you should get all of them at the same time, so you can compare their current information. Sometimes one will show an account open when it's closed, etc. This is the only site where you can get all three at the same time, for free, no signing up for anything: http://www.annualcreditreport.com

2) You're mistaken. Annualcreditreport.com gives you a free report from each bureau under the Fair Credit Act of whatever year it was.... you can get all 3 my friend. And since scores differ between each one, that would be your best option.

3) Technically all 3 are the same. All your credit activity will be reflected on all 3. The only difference is sometimes when your account goes to collections, they might report it to one or two bureaus and not all 3. Some companies will only pull one report to check your credit. Most nationally recognized banks and credit card companies tend to pull all 3 reports. Collections can appear on either one, two or all 3 of the reports. All your good credit like credit card and mortgage and auto loans is reported on all 3 so if you have all good credit and no blemishes, your 3 scores will be similar. Many a times a collection is removed from one bureau and not the other so your score can vary by as much as 100 points. But if you dont get in trouble, you are going to be fine.

4) You plan of spacing out your free reports thru the year is an excellent one. It really makes little difference which one you start with. Just pick one. You may find differences between the reports as not every creditor will report to all three bureaus. Creditors also have different update schedules. Each of the bureaus has their own system to calculate credit scores. You have to pay for your scores. Best place to get your scores is MyFico.com. You get real up to date FICO scores, not Fako scores.

5) The annualcreditreport.com is ok for credit reports, but you won't get a score. You can also request them individually from each credit bureau for a small fee. Really, the pay-for-it reports are much easier to understand and you can get all 3 reports at the same time. The credit reports will have differences because not all lenders report to all credit bureaus. So you may see one tradeline reported on experian and not on transunion.

6) Creditors are not required to buy subscriptions to any credit bureau, much less all three. Most of the biggies do, however. But that is the difference: a creditor will only report to the bureaus it subscribes to. Some creditors will work with one credit bureau in one geographic area and use another bureau for somewhere else.

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