Your credit file isn't one file. It's dozens.
Lenders, banks, landlords, insurers and utilities each buy reports about you from different companies. Most people never see more than three of them. This page lists every one on the federal government's published list, tells you which ones actually decide whether you qualify, and shows you how to get each report for free.
Then you have a choice: work through them yourself, or let us prepare the packet and you review it. Either way, you send.
Two ways through the same work
Everything below is public. You can do all of it on your own, for free, and we'll show you where. Or you can pay once and receive a packet that's already been through it.
Do it yourself
30–60 hours, spread over weeks
The honest version of the long way.
- Request reports from each company that matters to you. Each has its own form, identity check and delivery time; several arrive by mail.
- Read every line on every report and compare them against each other. Errors often show up as a mismatch between two bureaus, not as something obviously wrong on one.
- Learn what the Fair Credit Reporting Act lets you dispute, what it doesn't, and what a bureau must do when you do.
- Write a separate letter for each item to each bureau and each furnisher, with the right facts and the right citation.
- Send them certified, calendar the statutory response windows, read each response, and decide the next move.
The QualifyReady packet
72 hours to a package ready for your review
We've been through this, on our own files and others'. We do the reading, the comparing and the drafting. You do the deciding and the sending.
- You pull the reports (we tell you exactly where) and upload them.
- Within 72 hours you receive the item-by-item analysis, the 60-day plan, every letter drafted, and the tracking workbook.
- You review each document against your own records, correct anything we got wrong, sign and send.
Do your own research either way. The packet gives you the starting point most people spend a month building.
Start your analysis — $747You are responsible for what you send. Our analysis is built only from the reports and information you provide. Before you sign or mail anything, verify every date, account number, balance and statement against your own records. If a report you upload is incomplete or out of date, the packet will be too.
The eight files we review
Most services look at three. We review eight, because the errors that stall a mortgage or auto approval are as likely to sit in a file the lender's vendor pulls as in the three everyone knows about. Every one of these is free to request.
Experian
Nationwide credit file. One of the three every lender pulls.
Free weekly at AnnualCreditReport.com. Request, dispute and freeze details
Equifax
Nationwide credit file. Also offers extra free copies through 2026 under a 2019 settlement.
Free weekly at AnnualCreditReport.com. Request, dispute and freeze details
TransUnion
Nationwide credit file. The third leg of the mortgage tri-merge.
Free weekly at AnnualCreditReport.com. Request, dispute and freeze details
Innovis
The fourth credit bureau. Lenders and identity-verification vendors use it to cross-check the big three; a wrong address or alias here follows you.
LexisNexis Risk Solutions
Public records, address history and identity data. This is where mortgage verification vendors source much of what they check, and where mixed-file problems usually start.
ChexSystems
Checking and savings account history. A closed-for-cause account or unpaid overdraft here can block a new bank account, which lenders notice.
Early Warning Services
The other bank-account screener, owned by a group of large banks. Different banks report to different systems, so ChexSystems alone is not the whole picture.
NCTUE
Utility, telecom and cable payment history. A phantom collection from an old cable account often originates here before it reaches a credit bureau.
Each link opens that company's entry on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's list, which carries the current request address, phone number and online form. We link to the CFPB entry rather than to each company directly so that the instructions you follow are the government's current ones, not ours.
Freeze or lock? What each one does, and doesn't
Both stop a company from pulling your report to open new credit in your name. They are not the same thing, and neither one fixes anything already on your file.
Security freeze
A right under federal law. Free to place, lift and remove at every bureau, for as long as you want.
- The bureau must place it within one business day of an online or phone request, three business days by mail, and lift it within one hour by phone or online.
- If a bureau mishandles it, your remedy is the Fair Credit Reporting Act, not a contract.
- You get a PIN or account login; keep it, because you'll need it to lift the freeze.
- Available at every company that offers one, including the smaller bureaus below. Locks generally are not.
Credit lock
A product the bureau sells or bundles. Same effect day to day, different foundation.
- Toggles on and off instantly in an app, often with alerts attached.
- Governed by the bureau's terms of service, which it can change, and which usually include arbitration. If it fails, your recourse is the contract.
- Free at some bureaus, a monthly fee at others, and not offered at all by some. Offerings change; check the bureau's site.
- Not available at the smaller bureaus, so a lock alone leaves Innovis, LexisNexis, ChexSystems and NCTUE open.
What neither one does
- Neither removes, corrects or hides anything already on your report. A freeze protects against new fraud; it does not touch existing items.
- Neither stops your current creditors from reporting to the bureaus, or from reviewing your file on accounts you already have.
- Neither stops a debt collector from reporting a collection, or a court from recording a judgment.
- Neither blocks a bureau from processing your dispute. You can dispute with a freeze in place.
- Neither changes your score. A blocked pull is not an inquiry and does not appear on your report.
- A freeze at one company covers only that company. Freezing LexisNexis does nothing at Experian, and the reverse.
If you're in the middle of a mortgage or auto application, timing matters. A freeze blocks the lender's pull too. Ask your loan officer which companies they pull (the three bureaus, and often LexisNexis or Innovis for identity verification), lift those freezes for a set window before the application, and let them re-freeze automatically afterward. Lifting for a window is free.
Freeze each file directly
These go to each company's own freeze page. If a link has moved, the company's CFPB entry in the list below carries the current contact.
Experian
Experian Freeze Center · 888-397-3742 · Experian Security Freeze, P.O. Box 9554, Allen, TX 75013
Equifax
Equifax credit freeze · 800-685-1111 · Equifax Security Freeze, P.O. Box 105788, Atlanta, GA 30348
TransUnion
TransUnion credit freeze · 888-909-8872 · TransUnion LLC, P.O. Box 2000, Chester, PA 19016
Innovis
Innovis security freeze · 800-540-2505 · Innovis Consumer Assistance, P.O. Box 26, Pittsburgh, PA 15230-0026
LexisNexis Risk Solutions
LexisNexis security freeze · 800-456-1244 · LexisNexis Consumer Center, Attn: Security Freeze, P.O. Box 105108, Atlanta, GA 30348-5108. Covers LexisNexis and SageStream only.
ChexSystems
ChexSystems security freeze · 800-887-7652 · Chex Systems, Inc., Attn: Security Freeze, 7805 Hudson Road, Suite 100, Woodbury, MN 55125
NCTUE
NCTUE consumer page (freeze) · 866-349-5355
Early Warning Services
Early Warning does not list a security-freeze option on its CFPB entry. Request your report and dispute through the CFPB entry.
Phone numbers and mailing addresses are the ones published by each company as of September 2026 and can change. For a mail request, each company requires proof of identity and address; the company's page lists what to enclose.
Every company on the CFPB's list
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau publishes an annual list of companies that identify themselves as consumer reporting agencies under the Fair Credit Reporting Act or that give consumers access to the data they hold. This is that list, organized by what each company reports on. The eight we review are in bold. Every entry links to its CFPB page.
Source: CFPB, List of consumer reporting companies, current as of January 2025. The CFPB notes the list is compiled from the companies' own self-descriptions, is not independently verified, and is not all-inclusive.
Nationwide credit bureaus
Payment history, balances, inquiries. What almost every lender pulls.
Supplementary reports
Data sold to lenders to manage credit and fraud risk alongside the bureau file.
Check and bank account screening
Used by banks and merchants to decide whether to open an account or accept a check.
Telecom and utilities
Checked when you apply for phone, cable or utility service.
Low-income and subprime
Used by lenders that serve applicants with impaired credit, including short-term and buy-here-pay-here auto lenders. Worth pulling if you've had a payday, installment or subprime auto loan.
Tenant screening
Eviction, rent payment and background data sold to landlords. Most hold nothing on you unless you've applied for a rental that used them.
Employment screening
Background, income and employment verification sold to employers. Most hold nothing unless you authorized a check. The Work Number and the verification services matter for mortgage income verification.
- Accurate Background
- ADP Screening & Selection Services, Inc.
- Asurint
- backgroundchecks.com
- Blend Insights
- CCC Verify
- Certiphi
- Checkr
- Cisive
- DISA Global Solutions, Inc.
- EmpInfo, Inc.
- Experian Verify
- Fama Technologies
- Ferretly
- First Advantage Corporation
- HireRight
- IntelliCorp
- OPENonline
- Pinwheel
- Pre-employ.com
- Sterling
- The Work Number (Equifax)
- Truework
- Universal Background Screening
Personal property insurance
Claims history and driving data sold to home and auto insurers.
Medical
Used by life, health and disability insurers. Only holds a file if you've applied for individual coverage with an insurer that uses them.
Gaming and sports betting
Check-cashing and credit data used by casinos and racetracks.
Sources
Everything on this page comes from these. Read them yourself.
- CFPB — List of consumer reporting companies (searchable list, current as of January 2025; PDF and CSV)
- CFPB — Your rights to request, dispute and freeze
- CFPB — Common credit report errors to look for
- CFPB — Submit a complaint about a consumer reporting company or furnisher
- AnnualCreditReport.com — the only federally authorized source for free reports from the three nationwide bureaus
- Federal Trade Commission — Fair Credit Reporting Act, full text (15 U.S.C. § 1681 et seq.)
- eCFR — 12 CFR Part 1022, Regulation V (the CFPB's implementing rule, including furnisher duties in Subpart E)
- Cornell LII — 15 U.S.C. Chapter 41, Subchapter III (the FCRA as codified)
Links open the source's own site. We do not control those pages and they change; if a link breaks, the CFPB list page above is the place to start.
Upload your reports
This step unlocks after checkout. Once you've paid, you'll land here with an upload link tied to your order. The 72-hour clock starts when the last required report is received.
Required: current reports from Experian, Equifax and TransUnion. Recommended: Innovis, LexisNexis, ChexSystems, Early Warning and NCTUE. The more you upload, the more the analysis covers; we can only work with what you provide.
Start your analysis — $747By uploading you confirm the reports are yours, that you'll verify every document we return before you sign or send it, and that you've read the Terms of Service.