 TITLE: What Are Credit Bureaus and How Do They Work? CONTENT: Why Do I Have Different Credit Scores for Each Bureau?\n------------------------------------------------------\nYou may find out you have several credit scores when you check your credit. Don't worry, having several different credit scores is completely normal.\nCredit scoring companies like FICO and VantageScore develop scoring models that analyze one of your credit reports from the major bureaus and spit out an easy-to-understand score. The credit bureaus also create credit scores based on their own credit reports.\nThese credit scores are generally designed to predict the likelihood that a person will fall 90 or more days behind on a payment. A higher score indicates a person is less likely to fall behind on a bill and is, therefore, more creditworthy. Creditors tend to offer the best rates and terms to people who have high credit scores.\nYour credit scores could be different if your credit reports aren't identical or if you're comparing scores from two different models. Both scenarios are quite common.\nCredit bureaus are required by law to share certain types of information. For example, you can add a fraud alert to your credit report if you think you've been the victim of identity theft, and creditors must then take extra steps to verify your identity before getting a copy of your credit report. The initial bureau must pass on your fraud alert request to the other two bureaus. However, the bureaus are competitors and don't share most of the information that's in their databases. As a result, there are often differences between your credit reports from TransUnion, Equifax and Experian.\nThere are also hundreds (if not more) of different credit scoring models. So, even if your three credit reports are identical, you could have different scores depending on which models are being used to do the calculations. END