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 How Does A Company Report Consumer Credit?

Step 1 - Contact each National Credit Reporting Agency (Equifax, Experian, TransUnion, Innovis) which you will be reporting with, and establish a Data Furnishers or Service Agreement. This is a separate agreement from pulling credit reports.

Step 2 - All businesses reporting to the National Credit Bureaus, must meet the minimum reporting requirements established by each Credit Reporting Agency.

Step 3 - Once you have established a Data Furnishers or Service Agreement with one or more of the National Credit Bureau repositories and meet their account reporting minimums, then you are ready to research and purchase Metro 2 credit reporting software which will accurately report your consumers accounts.

Step 4 - Enter or update your accounts into the Metro 2 compliant software.

Step 6 - The software should perform validity checks on the accounts, to ensure the information which you have entered, is compliant with the latest regulations related to the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), the Fair Credit Billing Act (FCBA) the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA), the Fair Debt Collections Practice Act (FDCPA) and the Metro 2 format specifications.

Step 7 - Send your accounts to the National Credit Repositories which you have a reporting agreement with. Once the Credit Repository has received your accounts, they will run extensive processes to verify the data which you have submitted. They may also request additional information from your company and may have you manually verify the data which was submitted. Because of the time involved in this initial verification process, the first batch of accounts may not be updated for several weeks. Once the bureaus have approved your accounts, they will typically update the accounts within a thirty day period. This process and time delay will vary between bureaus. Please contact your sales representative at the bureau for their policies.

Step 8 - Repeat steps 4-7 on a monthly basis. Please note: Monthly reporting is required by all credit reporting agencies. Customers which do not report on a monthly basis, risk termination of their reporting agreement and accounts purged from their databases.

Credit Reporting and Software Tips

• How Does A Company Report Consumer Credit?
• What is the Metro 2 format?
• What should a company look for in a Metro 2 credit reporting software package?
• Do I need to become a credit bureau member in order to report consumer credit?
• National Credit Bureau Contacts, Reporting Minimums & Requirements
• If I report trade lines to one CRA, do my trade lines show on the other CRA's?
• How long does it take the Credit Repositories to update accounts after submission?
• We do not meet the minimum number of accounts to report to the credit bureaus. What are our options?
• What is 3rd party processing/stacking?
• What to look for in a 3rd party processor?