What are the three main credit bureaus?

The three main credit bureaus are Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. These organizations are responsible for collecting and maintaining consumer credit information, which they use to generate credit reports and scores that lenders typically rely on when assessing an individual's creditworthiness.

Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion gather data from various financial institutions, which includes details on borrowing history and repayment patterns. Each bureau provides a slightly different view of a consumer's credit history due to variations in the data they collect, but they all serve the same fundamental purpose of helping lenders make informed decisions regarding loans and credit applications.

The other options listed include entities that either do not function as credit bureaus or are types of credit scoring models, such as FICO and VantageScore. While these scoring models evaluate credit data from the three main bureaus to produce credit scores, they are not bureaus themselves. Thus, they are not part of the primary group that compiles and maintains credit information.