TransUnion is one of the three major credit bureaus that you'll find managing your credit information as collectors and other entities report to it.
WhenTransUnion Started:
TransUnion got its start in 1968 as the parent company of the Union Tank Car Company. The following year it acquired the Credit Bureau of Cook County (CBCC), which manually maintained over3 million card files of consumer information in 400 seven-drawer cabinets. Realizing that more advanced forms of storage where going to soon be necessary, the company began making vast improvements in technological storage. The way TransUnion did it was to replace accounts receivable data with automated tape-to-disc transfer, which helped dramatically to cut the storage time and cost of updating consumer files.
Expanding to the Future:
In the 1970s and 1980s the company acquired other companies and expanded its facilities and technological efforts drastically. Then in 1988, TransUnion achieved full coverage in the United States, meaning that it was able to maintain and update information on every market-active consumer in the country.
By the 1990s the company expanded even further into real estate, creating a full division that handles originating and closing residential loans. And by 2002, TransUnion had entered the direct-to-consumer market by acquiring TrueCredit.com. This enabled the company to help millions of consumers protect and improve their credit over the Internet.
TransUnion is still fully operable today and is larger than ever. Currently, its operations extend to 25 countries on five different continents.
>> Learn the roles of the credit bearus and how it affects you.
