I was reading a news story this weekend, “Little known firms tracking data used in credit scores” in The Washington Post, that got my attention. It was a news report about the so called “fourth bureau”, which are credit reporting bureaus other than the big three credit reporting bureaus of Experian, Trans Union and Equifax.

The big three credit bureaus figure credit scores from past bank loans, credit cards, mortgages and auto notes. This reporting obviously overlooks a large portion of people such as immigrants, low income consumers and students.

And that is where “fourth bureaus” come in. They determine credit scores from sources such as prepaid cards, cellphone bills, payday lenders and check cashers. These are sources that were once thought to be unreliable factors of a persons credit history.

They not only sell reports to credit lenders, but also to landlords, health care providers and anyone else that may run credit checks as part of their business.

The problem comes in with another practice of these firms, they mine the Internet for any mentions of your name and that also goes into the credit report.

In the news story, I was reading a woman had applied for a job at Red Cross and was denied. When she read over the explanation letter it said that she had been charged with the intent to deliver and manufacture methamphetamine.

It turns out that it was someone with the same name and age, but it somehow showed up on her report from a”fourth bureau.”‘

This was not the only credit reporting company like this that has kept her from getting a job for four years, and now if she needs to buy something on credit she has to do it under her husbands name.

There is no government agency checking the accuracy of the reports and these “fourth bureaus”are largely unregulated.

While there is need for these bureaus they need to be held accountable for their inaccurate reports.

The “fourth bureau”acts more like a spy agency than a reputable business because they don’t make themselves known to consumers. They are hard to find and in many cases consumers cannot dispute the results. They are in a way secret stashes of information.

Legislation is needed to get these “fourth bureaus” registered, because as it is right now the authorities don’t even know who or how many of these credit reporting bureaus there are.

If you are denied an apartment, loan or anything for that matter request an explanation and the source of the information. As a consumer you have the right to know if a company is spreading inaccurate information about you, and you can’t always depend on others to look out for your best interest.

Marcus Smith is junior journalism major and can be reached at 581-7942 or [email protected]