The 2018 roster of consumer reporting agencies, broken down into 11 categories, was published by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) Tuesday in the agency’s annual listing.
The CFPB said the list (current as of this month) includes the three nationwide consumer reporting companies (Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion) and a number of other firms focusing on certain market areas and consumer segments. Those include: employment screening, tenant screening, check and bank screening, personal property insurance, medical, low-income and subprime, supplementary reports, utilities, retail, and gaming/gambling.
According to the bureau, the list offers consumers tips on how to determine which companies to use. “It also makes it easier for you to take advantage of your legal rights to (1) obtain the information in your consumer reports, and (2) dispute suspected report inaccuracies with companies as needed,” the bureau said.
Additionally, CFPB said the list include features such as:
- Information to request a report.
- New tips on which specialty reports might be important for consumers to use for fact-checking depending on the specific situation.
- Useful identity verification information about how consumer reporting companies try to make sure consumers are who they say they are.
- Free reports guide.
- Companies that will provide free scores along with free reports.
- New security freeze information about how some of the companies on this list will limit third-party access to data if the consumer requests that through a security freeze.