Do Credit Unions Share Information With Credit Bureaus?

If a person has a loan with a credit bureau for any reason, the payment history of the loan will usually report to at least one of the three major credit bureaus. Credit unions do not provide information on assets held or transaction accounts such as checking accounts.

Credit unions are financial institutions just like the big banks, but they are owned and managed differently than a corporate financial institution. Unlike corporations that are for profit and responsible to the shareholders of the corporation, a credit union is a not-for-profit cooperative owned by credit union members. Even though the structure is different from a corporation, most credit unions have the same financial products as the large financial institutions. Credit unions will protect their members by performing due diligence on any lending, which is why they usually report any debt payment history to the credit bureaus.

Read More: Services Offered by Credit Unions

Creditors are under no obligation to report to a credit bureau, but most credit unions report to at least one of the three major credit bureaus when a customer has borrowed funds. One way a customer can determine if a credit union is reporting to a credit bureau is to order his credit file from each of the major credit bureaus which are TransUnion, Equifax and Experian. A person can also order a free credit report from each of the three credit bureaus from Annual Credit Report.

Credit unions are not-for-profit, so many of them will not report to all three credit bureaus since it is an expensive undertaking. The Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act of 2003 made it possible for a person to get a least one credit report a year and the credit bureaus simply passed the additional cost incurred under the Act to lenders. Credit bureau data is costly to a lender, which is why many customers see a charge for credit reports on loan or mortgage closing statements.

If a customer wants to know what credit bureau a credit union reports to, all he needs to do is ask the credit union. The credit union will not withhold this information and many credit unions have pre-printed literature in branch lobbies that have detailed information on how the credit union operates with the credit bureaus.