A credit repository company accumulates, stores, and reports consumer credit information. In the US there are 3 nationwide credit repositories viz., Trans Union, Equifax and Experian. The credit repositories are also known as Credit Reporting Agency, Consumer Reporting Agency, Credit Bureau, or simply CRA.

These 3 credit repositories are not government-affiliated. They are profit making, multi-million dollar corporations that collect and sell your private personal information. The personal information section on your credit report includes the following:

• Your name
• Social security number
• Date and year of birth
• Employers
• Personal phone numbers
• Spouse’s name
• Driver’s license number
• Information about your residence to creditors.

The credit repositories also sell your information to telemarketing and mailing list companies, without awaiting your permission and without your prior knowledge. More and often they acknowledge that frequent errors occur on consumer reports. In most cases these consumer reports are the ones that are generally ordered by a potential employer for susceptible jobs where background checks and security clearances are a must. Though it is vital to correct the information, the credit repositories take little action to correct them unless the consumer takes initiatives to prove that their report is inaccurate.

[tags]credit repositories,credit score,credit rating,purpose of credit repositories[/tags]