We asked 25 Consumers Union staffers and family members to apply for their reports and scrutinize what they found. While not randomly selected, our panel was fairly representative of a wide range of middle-income consumers. Recruited from Connecticut, New Jersey, New York, Texas, Vermont, and Washington, D.C., the participants included a diverse range of borrowers, from young adults just beginning to establish a credit profile to those seasoned by years of managing personal debt. Some had pristine credit histories, a few had spotty borrowing experiences, and a couple had some serious debt problems in their past. About half of the participants were instructed to apply to the three credit bureaus.
Experian reports are available online through consolidators.
Six reports we requested never showed up, though we were charged for three of them. All three agencies rely chiefly on Social Security numbers to verify that information is entered on the correct report. It's the Social Security identifier, too, that's supposed to guarantee that the right report doesn't end up in the wrong hands. Yet this seemingly fail-safe approach broke down in our test. Two others, applying through Experian and Trans Union, had their records mixed up with those of total strangers.