How Does Credit Reporting Work?

Credit reporting is the act of supplying credit repayment data to a credit reporting agency (CRA) as defined in the Fair Credit Reporting Act. This data can be obtained by banks and other prospective lenders with the borrower's permission, to determine his or her creditworthiness. A borrower may value credit reporting as a way to build or rebuild their credit history. A lender may value credit reporting as a way to help induce their borrower to pay on time.

For personal loans and other consumer loan transactions:

>Virgin Money reports to Experian, TransUnion and plans to expand reporting to additional major credit reporting agencies in the future. Virgin Money also reports to PRBC, a consumer-friendly credit bureau that allows you to add data to your credit report that the major credit bureaus do not normally track, such as rental, utility and daycare payments.

>For small business loan transactions:

Virgin Money reports to Dun & Bradstreet (D&B), which currently is the leading credit bureau for small business tradeline data in the nation. We also report to Equifax's Small Business Financial Exchange (SBFE), which is focused exclusively on small business loans and lines of credit.

Credit reporting is an optional feature you can set up on your loan. Please note that once you turn it “ON”, we cannot turn it “OFF.” To set it up, we need the borrower’s authorization. Complete an authorization by faxing a signed form to our office at 781.419.7700.

For consumer reporting, authorization includes the borrower’s signature, full name, address, birth date and your Social Security number. If we already have this information on file (e.g. when you set up your bank account) then all we will need is the borrower’s signature (electronic or by hand) on the authorization page.

For small business reporting, authorization includes a signature, the registered legal name of your business, the business’s address, the type of business or corporation and its Federal Tax ID Number (TIN). If the business is a sole proprietorship (e.g. a retail store), provide the company’s name as registered with the appropriate governing body. For "doing business as" (d/b/a) businesses that do not have a TIN, we will need the business owner’s full name, birth date and social security number instead.