TransUnion Free credit report

Introduction

Each one of the three credit agencies present the information contained in their reports in a different way. While the information in all three reports is, more or less, the same, the layout of each one is unique to each agency. In this review we’ll talk about the TransUnion credit report.

The first thing that should be noticed is that TransUnion doesn’t offer a free report, but free unlimited access to their reports during a 30-day trial period. This offer can be found in their website, http://www.transunion.com. There are also other more complete alternatives, like the 3-bureau credit report, available from http://www.truecredit.com, another site owned by the agency.

The free annual credit report you are entitled to receive as per the FACT act is not available within any of these sites, but from http://www.annualcreditreport.com.

Credit Report Format

The TransUnion report is easy to understand, and provides all the information you will need about your current credit status.

It’s divided into six sections, each one of them containing different information about you and your credit history; and some of these sections will have a link to access more in-depth information about a certain subject.

The sections are:

• Personal information
• Summary
• Account history
• Public information
• Inquiries
• Creditor contacts

Personal Information Section

This section contains information about you. It includes:

• Your name (or names you use).
• Your date of birth
• Your current address
• Previous addresses
• Employment history
• The date this information was reported to TransUnion.
• Any consumer statements you may have made on your credit file.

Summary Section

This section contains a categorized summary of all the accounts listed on your report. Data showed in this section is well distributed and doesn’t lead to confusion at all.

The information is separated into nine categories, which are:

• Total Accounts - Shows the total number of accounts on your report.
• Open Accounts - The number of accounts that are open.
• Closed Accounts - The number of accounts you have closed.
• Delinquent - The total number of accounts that are currently past due.
• Derogatory - The number of accounts that have an adverse influence in your credit score.
• Balances - The total balance of all the accounts.
• Payments - The total amount of money you owe for all the accounts.
• Public Records - The total number of public records stated in your report.
• Inquiries - The number of inquiries made by creditors to your credit file during the last 24 months.

This section is a quick way to check your credit variations.

Account History Section

This section of your TransUnion report shows detailed information about all your accounts. This information includes:

• Type of account (Real Estate, Installment, Revolving, Collection or Other)
• Creditor name
• Account number
• Account status
• Balance
• Payment Status

There is also a table showing the payment history for each account, for the last 24 months. Additionally, there is a “more details” link for each one of the accounts. Clicking on it will pop-up a window containing more information about the selected account, including useful dates, limits, terms, responsibility, last reported activity, balances and a 7-year payment history.

Public Information Section

The Public information section on your credit report shows any legal matters that may be affecting your credit. This information is publicly available, and comes from the records of state, country and city courts.
TransUnion separates your public records into eight different categories, depending on the type of record. These categories are:

• Bankruptcy - A public and legal declaration of inability to pay.
• Tax Lien - A legal filing by a tax agency due to unpaid taxes.
• Legal Item - Any legal filing, most commonly a judgment against you because of a civil action.
• Marital Item - A legal filing regarding a divorce or other marital matter.
• Financial Counseling - A public record that states that you have been receiving financial counseling.
• Financial Statement - A lien filed against your personal property.
• Foreclosure - A public record that indicated that a mortgage was executed and the creditor has taken over your mortgaged property.
• Garnishment - A court order to withhold some of all of your wages to pay a debt.

For each one of the public records listed on your report, relevant information such as important dates, amounts, court names and reference numbers will be shown.

Inquiries Section

This section lists information about all inquiries made by a creditor to your credit file in the past 2 years. This information can be used to detect any anomalies, like for instance an inquiry made by a creditor you’ve never heard about, of suspicious inquiries made on dates when you were not in the city.

Creditor Contacts Section

This section includes the contact information of each creditor in your credit report. The information includes the creditor’s address, and may include other like telephone and e-mail addresses. Creditors you have no account but that have made inquiries may be listed here as well.
 

Free TransUnion Credit Report Review

The TransUnion credit report is extremely easy to read, even for those people who have never seen financial information before. Each account is well defined and the overall layout simplifies data reading and prevents any possible confusion.

The amount and relevance of the presented data is very good, and some information (especially the 7-year payment history for the accounts) is truly appreciated.

Other products

As mentioned above, the TransUnion credit report is not free as in “click here and get it free”, but it can be viewed by signing up for a free 30-day trial at http://www.transunion.com. During this period, you can access your credit report as many times as you wish, as well as receiving alerts from their monitoring service, and the possibility of having a look at your score. After the first 30 days, the membership costs $9.95 per month. More.

TrueCredit (TransUnion) 3-Bureau Credit Monitoring

Another very interesting product (maybe the most interesting and convenient one) is their TrueCredit three-bureau credit report, a package that includes access not only to unlimited TransUnion credit reports, but also to unlimited Equifax and Experian credit reports. The package also includes the possibility of checking your credit score for all three credit agencies as many times as you want, expert credit monitoring services with notifications and alerts within 24 hours, the possibility to lock your credit report to prevent others to see it, and a $25,000 Identity Theft insurance. This whole package is priced $14.95. More.