How to contact each of the credit bureaus

The three major credit bureaus are Equifax®, Experian® and TransUnion®. They are also called credit reporting agencies or consumer reporting companies. They collect data and create the credit reports that are the basis for credit scores. 

You might want to contact one of the three credit bureaus to get a copy of your credit report, dispute an error, add a fraud alert to your report or freeze your credit. This article should help you get started.

What you’ll learn:

• The three major credit bureaus are Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. 

• The bureaus work independently, collecting data to create consumer credit reports. 

• You can contact the bureaus online, by phone or by mail. 

• You generally have to create an account to manage your credit online.

Equifax has several options for contacting the company, depending on what you’re trying to do.

• Online: You generally need to create a myEquifax account to contact the company or manage your Equifax credit report online. 

• By phone: The main credit support number for Equifax is 888-EQUIFAX (1-888-378-4329).

• By mail: You can download forms and then mail them to the listed address. For example, Equifax says to mail dispute forms to P.O. Box 740256, Atlanta, GA 30374-0256.

There are also separate pages that you can visit to:

• Add a fraud alert 

• Freeze or unfreeze your credit report

• Dispute errors on your credit report

Here are three ways to contact Experian for general inquiries.

• Online: Create an Experian account to manage your credit report and use other tools. 

• By phone: The main credit support number for Experian is 888-EXPERIAN (888-397-3742). 

• By mail: Select your reason for contacting Experian to find the correct address. You can mail Experian dispute forms to P.O. Box 4500, Allen, TX 75013.

The Experian help page has directions to different resources, including specific pages to: 

• Add a fraud alert 

• Freeze or unfreeze your credit report

• Dispute errors on your credit report

TransUnion has a hub where you’ll find links and contact information for different products and services.  

• Online: You can create a TransUnion account to manage your credit online.  

• By phone: The main credit support number for Equifax is 800-916-8800.

• By mail: TransUnion doesn’t list many contact addresses, but a dispute information page says you can mail disputes to P.O. Box 2000, Chester, PA 19016-2000.

TransUnion also has separate pages with more information if you want to:

• Add a fraud alert 

• Freeze or unfreeze your credit report

• Dispute errors on your credit report

There are several common reasons that you might contact the credit bureaus.

• To get a copy of your credit report: There are many ways to get a copy of your credit report, including creating accounts at the credit bureaus’ websites or submitting requests on AnnualCreditReport.com. These credit reports don’t necessarily come with credit scores. 

• To dispute an inaccurate item on your credit report: You have a legal right to dispute errors in your credit reports. Submitting disputes online is often the easiest option, but sometimes you might need to or prefer to call the bureau or submit a written request. 

• To request a fraud alert: If you suspect you may be the victim of identity theft or fraud, you can ask any credit bureau to add a fraud alert to your credit reports. You only need to contact one bureau, which will forward your request to the other two. A fraud alert tells creditors that they should try to verify your identity before opening a new account. 

• To freeze your credit: Adding a security freeze to your credit report is another free way to help protect yourself from credit fraud. When you freeze your credit, the credit bureau won’t send your credit report to creditors that try to check your credit before opening a new account. Unlike fraud alerts, you need to freeze your credit reports at Equifax, Experian and TransUnion separately. 

• To manage your account or subscriptions: You might want to contact the bureaus for technical assistance if you’ve created an online account. Or to manage or cancel a subscription if you’re paying for credit monitoring, identity protection or another service.

Each of the major credit bureaus offers consumers several ways to contact the company. Generally, the online services are the fastest and easiest to use, but you need to create an account and won’t necessarily be able to chat directly with someone at the bureaus. 

There are also ways to check and manage your credit without contacting the bureaus. For example, you can use CreditWise from Capital One. CreditWise is free to everyone. And using it to monitor your credit won’t hurt your credit scores.