Should all credit agencies ideally hold the same information?

Stixalot

Morning so i was examining my experian report today because this was the only one i have ever used and discovered that not all the debt information held about me was correct, so i thought ill just join up with clear score and found that other pieces were correct and again other pieces were missing ive tried joining up credit karma to check my transunion info but that wont even let me join as information which i know is true about myself doesnt match up with there records so i have to wait 30 days.. it concerns me that they are all so vastly different, theres a 300 point difference between scores and each one shows completely different info. Should i call them up to make sure they are all the same as i thought they would track everything as that is there job is it not?

[Deleted User]

Stixalot said:

Should i call them up to make sure they are all the same as i thought they would track everything as that is there job is it not?

No. It is not.  Their job is to accurately report what is provided to them.

Different lenders report to different CRAs and you can't force them to report to all. 

Disregard the scores - none have any relevance to your credit worthiness. Check for accuracy of data on each CRA file.

Ebe_Scrooge

Your score is irrelevant, ignore it - it's not used nor even seen by any lender, it's simply a marketing gimmick used by the CRAs.  What matters is the data contained within your file - as long as it's factually accurate then you have nothing to worry about.

You are likely to find differences, though.  Not all lenders report in to all three agencies - some only report to one, or two.  So if, say, you have a loan that's showing on one report but there's no mention of it on another, that in itself in not necessarily a cause for concern.  What would be concerning is if you have a missed payment recorded when in fact you've never missed a payment.

Also, bear in mind that the updates are not "real-time".  Most lenders tend to report on a monthly basis, but not all do - some may be weekly, some quarterly.  So again, that may account for some apparent discrepancies.

But the bottom line - as long as the data is accurate then there's nothing really to worry about.  And definitely ignore the comedy score that they assign to you.

MaryNB

Stixalot said:

Morning so i was examining my experian report today because this was the only one i have ever used and discovered that not all the debt information held about me was correct, so i thought ill just join up with clear score and found that other pieces were correct and again other pieces were missing ive tried joining up credit karma to check my transunion info but that wont even let me join as information which i know is true about myself doesnt match up with there records so i have to wait 30 days.. it concerns me that they are all so vastly different, theres a 300 point difference between scores and each one shows completely different info. Should i call them up to make sure they are all the same as i thought they would track everything as that is there job is it not?

If they are missing major accounts like  credit cards from a high street bank or a mortgage (things you would generally expect to see on all of them) you'll have to contact each agency separately. They fact one doesn't line up with another is not their concern.

As has been said above, some companies will only provide information to one or two providers so their absence from one of your files may not be an error. 

Due to an awkward address where I previously lived, Experian didn't have my credit card, Equifax and TransUnion didn't have my correct electoral register status. Had to deal with each one separately.