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 What Is 3rd Party Processing?

If your company does not meet the credit bureaus minimum number of account requirements, a 3rd party processor must be used to report your accounts to the bureaus. The company would send their accounts to the processor, the processor would then combine the accounts with their other customers accounts to meet the credit reporting agencies (CRA) minimum reporting requirement.

The following five requirements must be met for using a 3rd party processor:

• The bureau which you will be reporting with, must allow your company to report less than their minimum number of account requirements, through a processor. Each credit bureau has their own policies and may or may not allow processor reporting for your industry.
• Your company is required to have a data furnishers/service agreement with each credit bureau to which you will be reporting.
• Your company must use a bureau approved, Metro 2 Credit Reporting Software application.
• Your company must adhere to the reporting guidelines set fourth in the bureaus data furnishers/service agreement.
• The 3rd party processor must receive your accounts on a timely, monthly basis.

Please note: Reporting directly to the credit bureaus or through a 3rd party processor does not guarantee the credit reporting agencies will accept your accounts. If the accounts have missing or incorrect data, and/or contain compliance errors, chances are, the bureaus will bypass that account. If your file contains excessive errors, the entire file may be bypassed.

Credit Reporting and Software Tips

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• We do not meet the minimum number of accounts to report to the credit bureaus. What are our options?
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