TransUnion (Trans Union, LLC) is the third largest consumer credit reporting agency in the United States, which offers credit-related information to potential creditors. Like major competitors Equifax and Experian; TransUnion markets credit reports directly to consumers.
History
TransUnion was created in 1968 by Union Tank Car Company as their holding company. Its credit business began with the purchase of Credit Bureau of Cook County (CBCC) in 1969. Trans Union was built from acquisitions of major city credit bureaus, with service agreements with local owners of bureaus which were not for sale. Today it operates 250 offices in the U.S. and in 24 other countries. It is based in Chicago, Illinois.
TransUnion was a subsidiary of The Marmon Group until January 2005 and is now an independent, privately held company.
Controversy
In 2003, Judy Thomas of Klamath Falls, Oregon, was awarded $5.3 million in a dispute with TransUnion. The award was later reduced to $1 million. Thomas claimed it took her six years to get TransUnion to remove erroneous information from her credit report.
In 2006, after spending two years trying to correct erroneous credit information due to identity theft, a fraud victim named Sloan filed suit against all three of the largest credit agencies. TransUnion and Experian settled out of court for an undisclosed amount. In Sloan v. Equifax, a jury awarded Sloan $351,000. "She wrote letters. She called them. They saw the problem. They just didn't fix it," said attorney A. Hugo Blankingship III of Blankingship & Associates in Alexandria, Virginia.
