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How Credit Scores Are Different <> Let's say you ask a lender for a loan, line of credit, or credit card. That lender almost certainly checks your credit and asks at least one of the three major credit bureaus for a report on you. It can use some of the three, though. The lender might have a relationship with or value one credit scoring or reporting system more than the other. All credit inquiries appear on your credit report, but only for the bureaus whose reports are pulled. For example, if a credit inquiry is only sent to Experian, Equifax and Dun & Bradstreet don't know about it. In the same way, not all lenders report credit activity to every credit bureau, so a credit report from one company can be different from a report from another company. If a lender reports to all three agencies, their information may show up on credit reports at different times. This is because each agency collects information at different times of the month. Most of the time, delinquency won't hurt your credit score for at least 45 days. Most lenders only look at one report from one credit bureau to decide if a business is a reasonable credit risk. The main exception is a company that makes loans. Because so much money is at stake for each person, a mortgage lender looks at reports from all three credit bureaus. It often uses the middle score to decide whether to approve or not. The ways that the bureaus give points are not set in stone. Over the years, all methods, including FICO, have been changed to make them more accurate. Business credit scores can change with the same bureau over time, even if your debt history hasn't changed. This is because the way credit scores are calculated can be changed. Do the three national credit bureaus decide who to lend money to? People often think that the three national credit bureaus decide who gets loans. Credit bureaus give creditors and lenders some of the information they need to help them make important decisions about loans. Even though credit bureaus collect credit information so it can be shared with third parties, it is ultimately up to the lender or creditor to decide whether or not to give someone credit. Each lender or creditor may have its own set of requirements. How do credit bureaus get the information they need? Credit bureaus get information from different places, and not all third parties send information to the three main credit bureaus. This means that the information on your credit reports may differ. For example, creditors tell the credit bureaus about the status of your account and how you've paid in the past. These are two things that affect your credit score. When it comes to credit scores, there are a lot of different ways that credit bureaus and other groups use them. So, even if all of your creditors report to all three credit bureaus, your credit score may be different at each one. Likewise, even though most do, some creditors may only report to two, one, or even none.