What is a TransUnion® credit report?

A TransUnion® credit report provides a detailed record of financial information, including payment history, number of active credit accounts, current debt, bankruptcies and more. TransUnion, along with Equifax® and Experian®, is one of the three major credit bureaus that gathers this information to generate credit reports. 

Learn more about what’s on a TransUnion credit report, what TransUnion credit reports are used for, and how to get a free copy of your report.

What you’ll learn:

• TransUnion is one of the three major credit bureaus that produce credit reports. 

• Credit reports generally contain the same four categories of information: personal information, credit account data, public records and credit inquiries. 

• Lenders, landlords, property management companies and employers may use credit reports to inform their decisions.

• There are several ways to get a free credit report, including accessing your TransUnion credit report anytime with CreditWise from Capital One.

Your credit report from each of the three major credit bureaus may look slightly different. But generally, they’ll all contain these four categories of information: 

1. Personal information, including your name, address, phone number, Social Security number and date of birth. 

2. Credit account data, such as the types of credit accounts, credit limits and payment history.

3. Public records, which might include things like foreclosures and bankruptcies.

4. Hard and soft credit inquiries, which may be triggered by new credit applications, rental applications and new phone, cable or internet accounts.

This list represents just some of the data that may show up on your credit reports. Learning more about how to read a credit report can help you gain a deeper understanding of what your credit reports say about your financial history.

Lenders and creditors, like banks and credit card issuers, use the information in credit reports to assess a borrower’s creditworthiness—how likely someone is to pay back a line of credit. Credit reports help inform lenders’ decisions about whether they should extend credit or approve loans. And they may impact interest rates and other loan terms that are offered too.

Landlords, property management companies and employers may also review credit reports when making decisions about renting someone an apartment or hiring someone for a job. Your credit reports can even affect deposit amounts for utilities.

Checking your credit reports can help you understand what people or companies reviewing your credit might see. For example, reviewing your TransUnion credit report and your credit scores might help you learn whether you meet the minimum requirements to qualify for a mortgage and what range of auto loan interest rates you may be offered.

The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) restricts access to your credit reports. According to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), the FCRA says a credit reporting company may send your credit report to “creditors, government authorities, landlords, employers and others” who intend to use your report for decisions about things such as: 

• Credit

• Insurance coverage or premiums

• Employment

• Government benefits and licenses 

• Rental applications

Credit reports may be issued in response to things like court orders and subpoenas too. You may also authorize someone to receive your credit report. The CFPB also notes that you can see who has requested your credit report in the past year, or the past two years when it comes to employers, when you request a copy of your report.

You can visit the TransUnion website to request a credit report. You’ll see that you have a few options, including:

• Requesting a weekly free credit report by signing up at AnnualCreditReport.com.

• Viewing additional free TransUnion credit reports daily by utilizing the TransUnion Service Center.

• Purchasing a monitoring subscription to TransUnion Credit Monitoring.

Additionally, if you sign up for CreditWise from Capital One, you can access your TransUnion credit report and VantageScore® 3.0 credit score anytime without hurting your scores. CreditWise is free for everyone who is eligible—whether or not you’re already a Capital One customer.

TransUnion, Equifax and Experian are the three major credit reporting agencies. They all use financial information to compile credit reports. Those reports are then used by credit-scoring companies to calculate credit scores.

Depending on the credit bureau, your report might look slightly different. One reason? Not all lenders report credit information to all three bureaus. Some may provide information only to TransUnion, for instance. Others may give information to all the major credit bureaus.

That means that each bureau might be using slightly different information in its reports. And those differences in credit reports are one reason you might see differences in your credit scores.

Here are a few frequently asked questions about TransUnion credit reports.

TransUnion is one of the three major credit bureaus that produce credit reports. Your credit report consists of information regarding your credit history and current financial situation.

Remember, CreditWise lets you access your TransUnion credit report anytime. And with CreditWise, you can set up alerts to track changes to your credit report and identify the factors affecting your credit scores. You can even monitor your personal information to help prevent fraud and identity theft.

Sign in or sign up for CreditWise now.