When it comes to credit, three major bureaus dominate the market – Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion. These credit reporting agencies are responsible for collecting and compiling financial data about individuals and businesses to produce credit reports. While there are some similarities between the three credit bureaus, there are also several key differences that you should be aware of. Learn more about Experian vs Equifax vs TransUnion, including pros and cons of each, pricing, and which offers the best credit monitoring service for your unique needs and budget.
What’s the Difference Between Experian, Equifax and TransUnion?
Experian, Equifax and TransUnion are three different credit reporting bureaus (or companies). Each of these bureaus collects credit-related information (i.e., credit history, payment history, open accounts, and credit inquiries) in order to generate credit reports. These credit reports are then used to determine your credit score.
In addition to credit reports, all three of these credit reporting bureaus offer credit monitoring services to help individuals better manage their credit and prevent fraudulent activity and stolen identities.
What Is Experian?
Experian is one of the largest credit reporting bureaus in the world. It collects data on over a billion individuals and businesses in more than 80 countries. Experian is known for its comprehensive credit monitoring services, with features like free credit monitoring and identity theft protection. Experian also provides credit reports for businesses, which include information on payment history, legal filings, and industry benchmarks.
While Experian is a reputable credit bureau, it has faced some controversy over its business practices, including allegations of selling personal data to third-party companies.
Experian Pros & Cons
| Pros: | Cons: |
| ✔️ Free credit monitoring plan | ❌ More expensive credit monitoring than Equifax (despite a similar breadth of features) |
| ✔️ Free 7-day trial (on paid plans) | |
| ✔️ Dark web surveillance | |
| ✔️ Daily credit updates | |
| ✔️ Wide array of unique alerts (e.g., sex offender alerts, payday loan alerts, address change alerts, SSN alerts) |
Learn more about what is Experian.
What Is Equifax?
Equifax is another major player in the credit reporting industry, with a long history dating back to 1899. It provides credit reports and scores, as well as credit monitoring and identity theft protection services. Equifax’s credit reports are highly detailed, with information on credit accounts, public records, collections, and inquiries.
Equifax has also faced some scrutiny in recent years over data breaches that exposed sensitive financial data of millions of people. As a result, the company has taken steps to enhance its security measures and increase transparency with consumers.
Equifax Pros & Cons
| Pros: | Cons: |
| ✔️ Robust credit monitoring service | ❌ Does not offer a free credit monitoring plan |
| ✔️ Web Scan | ❌ Does not offer a free trial (costs $1 for 7 days) Does not offer as many alerts as Experian |
| ✔️ Social Security Number monitoring | |
| ✔️ Lost funds replacement | |
| ✔️ Lost wallet protection |
Learn more about what is Equifax.
What Is TransUnion?
TransUnion is a newer credit bureau, established in 1968. Despite its relative youth, TransUnion has become a key player in the credit reporting industry, with data on over one billion consumers worldwide. TransUnion offers many of the same services as Experian and Equifax, including credit reports and scores, credit monitoring, and identity theft protection.
One area where TransUnion stands out is its use of alternative data sources, such as rental payments and utility bills, to build credit histories for consumers who may not have traditional credit accounts.
TransUnion Pros & Cons
| Pros: | Cons: |
| ✔️ Free credit monitoring plan | ❌ Its premium credit monitoring plan is the most expensive ($29.95 per month) |
| ✔️ Lock and unlock credit with its free plan | ❌ Does not offer a free trial for its paid plan |
| ✔️ Lock and unlock credit with the free plan | ❌ Far fewer alerts than Experian |
| ✔️ Unlimited TransUnion credit report changes | |
| ✔️ Dark web surveillance | |
| ✔️ Offers a number of tools to help individuals improve their credit |
Learn more about what is TransUnion.
Credit Reports: Experian, Equifax and TransUnion
All credit reports – whether from Experian, Equifax or TransUnion – contain basic information that can be categorized into five primary sections: personal information, a summary of accounts (open and closed), public records, credit inquiries and consumer statements.
Here are the five main sections found in all major credit reports:
Personal Information
These personal facts about you include your full name, date of birth, address, place of employment, and a partial listing of your social security number.
Summary of Accounts
Your account summary lists any information creditors have reported about your payment history on loans of all kinds, such as mortgages, credit cards, auto loans, and student loans.
Public Records
Any public record on your credit file – such as a judgment, tax lien or bankruptcy – will seriously lower your FICO credit score. However, judgments or bankruptcies listed as “dismissed” will not impact your credit rating because they will be ignored by credit-scoring firms, as if they never happened.
Credit Inquiries
An inquiry in your credit file is a record of any application for credit that you made.
For example, if you seek a mortgage or car loan, or even if you apply for a credit card or perhaps request an increase in your current credit card limit, any of these actions can result in an inquiry, also known as a “hard” pull of your credit file. (Pulling your own credit report is a “soft” pull and doesn’t impact your credit rating).
Consumer Statements
Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, you are allowed to add a 100-word “Consumer Statement” to any of your credit reports if you have disputed an item in your credit files, but the item was not removed because it was verified by a creditor.
Scrutinizing your credit reports puts you one step closer to achieving a great credit rating because you will undoubtedly become better educated about your credit just by looking at the highlights of each credit file, and the way that similar information is presented differently in each credit report.
You’ll only be able to spot these differences, though, by closely examining your credit reports generated by Equifax, Experian and TransUnion.
If you want the most up-to-date copies of your credit reports, you can get them at no charge from AnnualCreditReport.com. Knowing what’s in your credit files is great, but you should also know your credit scores.
Credit Scores: Equifax vs Experian vs TransUnion
Each of the three major credit bureaus collects information and generates credit reports–not credit scores. These credit reports are used by credit scoring companies, such as FICO to determine your credit score. For more information, check out our article on what is a FICO credit score.
Credit Monitoring Services: Experian vs TransUnion vs Equifax
A credit monitoring service is a tool offered by all three major credit bureaus – TransUnion, Experian, and Equifax. It gives users real-time access to their credit report, helping them to be proactive with their finances and helping to protect them from identity theft and fraud. Credit monitoring services send users alerts when there are changes to their credit report, such as new account openings, hard inquiries, or even an increase or decrease in overall score. All three offer comprehensive credit monitoring services, but they’re not without their differences.
Experian’s Credit Monitoring Service
Experian offers a free credit monitoring service that provides users with daily updates on their scores and reports and also offers features like dark web surveillance and identity theft protection. Experian’s service allows users to track their credit report activity, including accounts opened in their name, address changes, inquiries, and late payments, as well as monitor for any suspicious activity or changes in their score.
In addition to its free plan, it also offers a premium plan for $24.99 per month. This includes extra features such as the ability to lock and unlock credit, fraud resolution, alerts, dark web surveillance and $1 Million in ID theft insurance. What’s unique about Experian’s premium plan is that it offers a wide array of alerts, such as sex offender alerts (get notified when a registered sex offender moves into your neighborhood), change of address alerts (when someone tries to re-route your mail), social security number alerts, and payday loan alerts.
To learn more, visit Experian.
TransUnion’s Credit Monitoring Service
TransUnion offers two different credit monitoring services, a basic free option (TrueIdentity) and a more comprehensive plan for $29.95 per month that includes up to 1 Million in ID theft insurance, personalized debt analysis, and unlimited updates to your TransUnion credit report and score.
TransUnion also offers a feature called Credit Lock which helps protect customers from identity theft by locking their credit files so no one can access them without permission. Additionally, the company has a free mobile app that provides users with up-to-date information on their accounts and financial activities.
For more information, visit TransUnion.
Equifax’s Credit Monitoring Service
Equifax offers three credit monitoring plans, ranging from $16.95 to 29.95 per month. All plans include three-bureau credit file monitoring, social security number monitoring, a daily Equifax credit report, a variety of identity theft protection features such as fraud alerts, credit report lock, stolen funds replacement, up to $1 Million in ID theft protection and dark web surveillance to help identify potential scams and other threats to customers’ personal information.
Unlike Experian, Equifax does not offer a free trial. Instead, it offers new users to try its service for seven days for $1. While this isn’t terrible, it does feel a bit cheap for a provider that does not offer a free plan like Experian and TransUnion.
Winner: Experian is the best free option, whereas Equifax offers the best premium option given its vast array of fraud monitoring features and protections, from its web scan services to stolen funds replacement.
Fraud Detection and Prevention: Equifax vs Experian vs TransUnion
Fraud detection and prevention are part of each credit bureau’s credit monitoring services. While all three offer fraud detection and prevention, each offers a slightly different feature set. For example, while TransUnion offers the ability to lock credit files, Equifax offers Web Scan, a dark web surveillance service that can identify potential scams and threats.
Winner: Experian offers the most comprehensive fraud detection features. It also offers the most robust services in the instance of fraud. For example, it uniquely includes stolen wallet protection, stolen funds replacement, and $1 Million in ID theft insurance.
Price: Experian vs Equifax vs TransUnion
| Experian | Equifax | TransUnion | |
| Starting Price | Free; $24.99 per month | $16.95 per month | Free; $29.95 per month |
| Free Trial (paid plans) | 7 days | No | No |
| Real-Time Credit Monitoring | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Alerts | ✓- vast array of alerts (paid plan) | ✓- though limited | ✓- though limited (paid plan) |
| Lock Credit | ✓ – paid plan | ✓ | ✓ |
| ID Theft Insurance | $1 Million (paid plan) | $1 Million | $1 Million (paid plan) |
| Stolen Wallet Protection | X | ✓ | X |
| Dark Web Surveillance | ✓ – paid plan) | ✓ | ✓ – paid plan |
| Stolen Funds Replacement | X | ✓ | X |
Winner: For a free plan, TransUnion is the best choice as it offers a similar feature set as Experian, but with the ability to lock your credit for free. On the other hand, Equifax offers the most comprehensive premium plans at the best price–nearly half the cost of TransUnion’s premium plan with double the features.
How to Choose Between Experian vs Equifax vs TransUnion
All three are reputable and provide valuable services for consumers. One factor to consider is which bureau is most frequently used by lenders and other businesses that may access your credit information. Another factor is which bureau offers the specific services you’re looking for–and will get the most use out of.
Here are the key factors to consider when choosing a credit monitoring service:
- Fraud Protection Features (e.g., alerts, dark web surveillance, SSN monitoring, credit lock)
- Fraud Assistance and Recovery Services
- Affordability
- Ease of Use
- Credit Score Improvement Tools
You may also want to consider the cost of services, although both TransUnion and Equifax offer a free credit monitoring service and you can get your credit report from all three once per year for free. Ultimately, the most important thing is to regularly monitor your credit report from all three bureaus to ensure the accuracy of your information and detect any suspicious activity.
Bottom Line
Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion are all important credit bureaus that collect and compile financial data about individuals and businesses. While there are differences in their services and business practices, they all serve the same core function of providing credit reports and scores to help consumers manage their credit.
By understanding the distinctions between these credit bureaus, you can make informed choices about which services to use and how to maintain a healthy credit profile. Remember, staying on top of your credit report is an essential part of your overall financial well-being.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Which is better: Equifax Experian or TransUnion?
TransUnion is the best option for free credit monitoring, whereas Equifax offers the most robust premium plan at the best price ($16.95 per month) and Experian offers the most comprehensive list of alerts for those that want the utmost monitoring and protection.
Which credit bureau is most accurate?
In terms of which credit bureau is the most accurate, each of the major credit bureaus—Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion — are considered to be more or less equal as each one collects and reports credit information from more or less the same sources, such as lenders, creditors, and public records.
Which credit bureau is most accurate?
In terms of which credit bureau is the most accurate, each of the major credit bureaus—Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion — are considered to be more or less equal as each one collects and reports credit information from more or less the same sources, such as lenders, creditors, and public records.
Do banks go by TransUnion or Equifax?
Banks and lenders can use credit reports from any of the three major credit bureaus—Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. However, the most common credit score used by banks is FICO.