CFPB Study: Credit Card Information Dominates Consumer Database

Credit reporting agencies obtain at least half their information on consumers—including mortgage applicants—from credit card companies, according to a new study from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

The agency noted that the nation’s big three credit reporting firms—Equifax, Experian and TransUnion—each have more than 200 million files on consumers.

“In a typical month, they receive updates from approximately 10,000 information ‘furnishers,’ which are the entities that supply data on consumers,” the agency writes in a summary of its findings.

“The furnishers do this on more than 1.3 billion ‘trade lines,’ which are individual information sources on a consumer report such as a consumer’s accounts for a car loan, mortgage loan, or credit card.”

CFPB said it hopes the study will bring “more clarity to the confusing world” of credit reports.

When a consumer files a mortgage application, one of the first things a lender does is pull the consumer’s credit report.