Background Check Company Information

A background check company offers information about a certain individual or business for a nominal fee. The consumer reporting agencies preserve and maintain all credit history details of individuals as well as businesses.

The credit history of all individuals and businesses are part of the database maintained by the consumer reporting agencies. You can conduct a search on this database to learn all about the credit habits and history of an individual or business. The chief aim of this is to provide creditors enough information so that they could decide whether an individual or business is eligible for any sort of financial transaction or not.

Consumer Reporting Agencies: Work Procedure

Consumer reporting agencies, also known as credit bureaus, follow a particular work procedure. The credit details of an individual or business are provided to the consumer reporting agencies by the creditors. These details are then updated to the existing database of credit history of the particular individual or business.

The consumer reporting agency also assigns a credit score to the individual or business on the basis of the credit report details. All credit reports are accessible to the public. There is a processing fee for obtaining these records. The consumer reporting agencies are governed by the directives of the Fair Credit Reporting Act.

It is necessary to understand the functioning of credit bureaus. They do not decide whether an individual or business is eligible for credit. It is only there to provide information about the credit history of the concerned individual or business. It is from these details that the creditor decides whether to have any financial transactions with the person/party or  not.

Every individual is entitled to a credit history report from these consumer reporting agencies on a yearly basis. This is to ensure that you are aware of your own credit history details and can correct any wrong information. Other than this, all credit history records are available for a certain charge.

Consumer Reporting Agencies

The chief consumer reporting agencies are Equifax Credit Information Services, Inc., Experian Information Solutions, Inc., and Trans Union LLC. The services of these consumer reporting agencies are discussed below.

Equifax Credit Information Services, Inc.: Known for its personal and business credit solutions, Equifax Credit Information Services, Inc. is one of the leading names in the field of consumer reporting. Some of the services they offer are as follows:

•    Credit Report and Score
•    Payment of debts online
•    Protection from ID Theft
•    Credit Report Correction
•    Fraud Alerts
•    Request for Security Freeze

You can  look at the profile of Equifax Credit Information Services, Inc. from http://www.equifax.com/home/en_us. The mailing address of Equifax Credit Information Services, Inc. is as follows: Equifax Credit Information Services, Inc, P.O. Box 740241, Atlanta, GA 30374. You could also call 1-888-567-8688.

Experian Information Solutions, Inc.: This consumer reporting agency is known for its fast services. Some of the services available from Experian Information Solutions, Inc. are credit monitoring, credit score maintenance, credit dispute and correction, identity theft protection, and so on. Visit http://www.experian.com/ for more details. You could also contact the credit bureau directly. All contact details are available from http://www.experian.com/customer_service/http://www.peoplepublicrecords.org/mail.html.

Trans Union LLC: Offering credit history details and score as well as a number of credit related services, Trans Union LLC is a well-known credit bureau. You can check out all details of Trans Union LLC from http://www.transunion.com/. You could obtain the contact details of the credit bureau at the following:

For personal purposes: http://www.transunion.com/corporate/personal/consumerSupport/contactUs.page.

For business purposes: http://www.transunion.com/corporate/business/clientSupport/contactUs.page.

National Association of Professional Background Screeners

A background check is not only about credit history checks; you may need to conduct a background check to learn whether there are any criminal history records concerning a particular individual. There are a number of sources that offer background checks.

Background checks are important before you opt for any financial transactions with a party. There are a number of such organizations that conduct these. The National Association of Professional Background Screeners is one such non-profit association working toward offering background check information to individuals and businesses.

Established in 2003, the National Association of Professional Background Screeners provides members the option to screen companies before associating with them. You could join as a regular member of the National Association of Professional Background Screeners on the website http://www.napbs.com/i4a/ams/public/memberapp_description.cfm.

You could also opt to become an associate member, an affiliate member or an international member of the association. All details are available at the website. If you are an existing member you could log on to https://www.napbs.com/i4a/ams/amslogin.cfm?nextpage=/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=3419.

The background check companies work on the basis of the Fair Credit Reporting Act. It is necessary to understand that each U.S. state has particular rules and regulations about the associations working in the field of consumer reporting. Some U.S. states require consumer reporting agencies to have investigative licenses in order to function; though having an investigative license to operate for consumer reporting agencies is not a necessity in all U.S. states.