USA TODAY International Edition
Trying to sidestep credit bureaus much easier said than done
But savvy moves in certain situations can help keep them at bay
With so much ire directed at Equifax following the massive data breach at the credit-reporting agency, you may be wondering: Can I just avoid Equifax altogether?
The short answer is no, according to consumer advocates and credit professionals.
But experts say it is possible, in certain situations, to sidestep Equifax — or any credit bureau — by making a few savvy moves.
Assume someone needs to check your credit report in the coming weeks or months.
Maybe you’re applying for a loan, interviewing for a new job or trying to rent an apartment. Can you ask for one credit report to be pulled instead of another? Not likely.
“You don’t have any control over which credit bureau a lender, employer or tenant screener would use,” says Susan Grant, Director of Consumer Protection and Privacy at the Consumer Federation of America.
“Some companies use just one credit report,” Grant notes, “but others will use two or even all three credit reports,” from Equifax, Experian and Trans Union.
Credit expert Anthony Davenport, founder and CEO of Regal Credit Management in New York City, agrees. He says when people seek mortgages, lenders nearly always pull a “tri-merged” credit report, with information from all three credit bureaus.
“There is no way you can avoid dealing with them entirely,” Davenport says. “However, there are some things that people can do to satisfy their desire to take better control of their credit.”
For starters, if you’re applying for credit, or you know someone needs to pull your credit, you can try to pinpoint the exact creditreporting agency that will be used. The easiest way to do this is to simply ask your lender.
“You can give each creditor a call before you apply and ask them which credit bureau they use,” Davenport recommends. “Nationwide, lenders will use one bureau or another based on which state you’re applying from.”
Additionally, websites such as CreditBoards.com operate crowd-sourced forums, where users share information on which banks used which credit bureaus for credit pulls and loan applications.
In the wake of the Equifax hack, if you’ve locked down access to all your credit reports by using credit freezes, you’ll definitely have to ask future creditors which credit reporting agency they use. That’s the only way you’ll know which credit report to unfreeze.
“They should be able to tell you which credit report or reports they use so you won’t have to go to the expense of unfreezing all of them,” Grant says.
Other strategies can help too.
“There is no way you can avoid dealing with them entirely. However, there are some things that people can do to satisfy their desire to take better control of their credit.” Anthony Davenport, founder and CEO of Regal Credit Management
“You can go to OptOutPrescreen.com and tell the credit bureaus not to sell your data. They hate that, because selling your information is the primary business model of the credit bureaus,” says Davenport, author of Your Score: An Insider’s Secrets to Understanding, Controlling and Protecting Your Credit Score.
Ultimately, though, Grant and Davenport warn Americans have to recognize that they’re not the customers of the credit bureaus — businesses are. Says Grant: “You don’t initiate the relationship with the credit-reporting bureaus, and you can’t end the relationship with them either.”
Khalfani-Cox, The Money Coach, is a personal finance expert, television and radio personality and the author of numerous books, including bestseller