TransUnion, and the middle score

Three scores come back on a mortgage tri-merge and the lender uses the middle one. I wrote about that in February. What I didn't say is which bureau tends to be the middle, because it varies — but in the files I've read, it's TransUnion more often than chance would predict. Not because its model is different; because its file is. It tends to carry slightly different balances and slightly different dates than the other two, and slightly different lands in the middle.

This is the third of three on the big three.

What's distinctive

TransUnion's report is organized by account type and is the most detailed of the three on payment history month by month — which is useful, because a single "30" in a grid of "OK"s is easier to find here than anywhere else. It also carries the most rental data through its SmartMove screening arm, and the subprime lending file through FactorTrust, both of which are separate databases with their own request paths on the CFPB list.

Where the errors sit

Duplicate accounts. When a loan is sold or a servicer changes, TransUnion is the bureau most likely to show the old and new tradelines both open, which doubles your reported balance and makes a nine-year account look nine months old. And the month-by-month grid, precisely because it's detailed, is where a stray late mark that the other bureaus never received tends to live alone.

The middle-score move

If you're headed for a mortgage, pull all three reports and ask the loan officer which bureau produced the middle score on a soft pull. That's the file to work first — the one where a corrected duplicate or a removed stray late moves the number the lender actually uses. Working the highest file feels good and changes nothing; the lender throws it out.

Pull free at AnnualCreditReport.com, and read the grid.

Next: mixed files — when someone else's life is on your report, and why the bureau's "reasonable procedures" are the words that matter.