TransUnion

TransUnion is a credit bureau that produces credit reports and provides various products and services related to consumer credit health and identity theft prevention. As one of the three major credit bureaus (along with Equifax and Experian), TransUnion collects information about how consumers use credit, including the types of credit accounts used, payment history for those accounts, amounts owed and more. TransUnion then passes that information along to creditors and potential employers, which use the information – often together with credit scores calculated from it – to make decisions about individuals' creditworthiness.

TransUnion Facts

• Founded in 1968
• Headquartered in Chicago, IL
• 8,000 employees
• Credit data for 1 billion people in over 30 countries
• Database of more than 65,000 businesses
• Publicly owned (ticker symbol: TRU)

You can access your free TransUnion credit report (updated daily) through your WalletHub account. You can also dispute any inaccurate or fraudulent items on your TransUnion credit report through WalletHub's interface.

You can get a free TransUnion FICO score through a Bank of America credit card account, select Barclays credit card accounts, and Discover's free Credit Scorecard program (open to all).

You cannot get a free FICO score from TransUnion directly. Instead, TransUnion allows you to view your VantageScore by paying $24.95 per month for a TransUnion account. That gives you unlimited access to your credit score, your credit report, and credit monitoring.

You don't have to pay to check your TransUnion credit score, however, and the credit score you check doesn't have to be a FICO score. You can get free daily credit score updates based on TransUnion credit report data from WalletHub. You can also monitor your credit and receive customized advice based on your credit profile.

To file a complaint against TransUnion, use the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's online complaint tool or contact your state's attorney general. Once you file an online complaint with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) or state's attorney general, they will forward that complaint to TransUnion. Basically, the CFPB and the attorneys general want to understand what kinds of complaints companies are receiving as well as what those companies are doing in response. TransUnion's customer service representatives will look at your complaint and respond with steps they followed (or that they will follow in the future) to resolve your complaint.

If you file your complaint through the CFPB, it will be published on their website (without your personally identifiable information). There are more than 152,000 complaints about TransUnion on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's website. The vast majority of these complaints (88%) were closed with some form of explanation from TransUnion, while approximately 11% were closed with a form of relief to the consumer. The remainder of the complaints are still in progress. In the event that you are unhappy with TransUnion's response to your complaint, you can provide feedback. The CFPB does not always take action against companies like TransUnion itself, but it does provide complaint data to the public and sends reports to state and federal agencies, as well as Congress.

If you want to file a complaint with TransUnion about something on your credit report, you can file a dispute online through your TransUnion account or add a consumer statement to your credit report. This statement does not affect your credit score, but can help potential creditors and lenders understand the circumstances surrounding negative items on your credit report.