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Do credit bureaus decide whether I should get credit?

Last Updated: March 24, 2008

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Individual creditors, not credit bureaus (also called credit reporting agencies), determine whether or not you get credit. They use your credit report and/or credit score in most cases to make credit granting decisions. For example, most mortgage lenders will look at reports from all three major credit reporting agencies (Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion) and credit scores calculated using information from each; other lenders may use reports and scores from two, or just one, of the credit reporting agencies.

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