Why Your Mortgage Costs More: The Credit Bureau Problem

The bottom line: The companies that track your credit report charge more every year. Banks have to buy their reports to give you a mortgage. Guess who pays? You do.

How Did We Get Here?

There are three big credit bureaus in America: Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. They track your credit history and sell that information to banks and lenders.

Here’s the problem:

The government makes banks buy their reports. Federal lending rules require mortgage companies to purchase credit data. This means the credit bureaus don’t have to compete. There’s no reason for them to lower prices. Lenders have to pay them, no matter how high the cost.

So what do the credit bureaus do? They raise prices. A lot. Every year.

What Does This Mean for You?

Your lender pays for your credit report. They pass that cost on to you. If you’re paying for a refinance, you definitely see it in your closing costs. If you’re buying, it’s rolled into your total expenses.

Before you stress about these costs, know where you stand. Check your credit for free with our Mortgage Readiness tool — no surprises, no cost.

Multiply that by thousands of homebuyers every month. The cost adds up—fast.

For families trying to save for a down payment, every dollar counts. When unnecessary fees eat into your budget, it makes homeownership harder to reach.

The Real Problem: Companies Making Record Money While Americans Pay More

Here’s what makes this really frustrating:

Even though the credit bureaus charge Americans more and more, the companies are doing great financially. They’re making record profits.

And what are they doing with that money?

They’re hiring workers overseas. The three biggest credit bureaus now have over 30,000 employees outside the United States. That includes thousands of jobs in Ireland, India, Chile, and Costa Rica.

So the government gave these companies a protected market (lenders must buy from them). They use that protection to charge more. Americans pay more. The companies make bigger profits. And those profits fund job growth… in other countries.

What Needs to Happen

Congress and regulators need to act. There are two paths forward:

• Open up the market to real competition. Let other companies offer credit reports. Watch prices drop when there’s actually something to compete for.
• Acknowledge reality and regulate accordingly. If it’s not a free market, don’t treat it like one. Set rules on what these companies can charge.

In the meantime, simpler reforms should be fast-tracked:

• Allow consumers to get a single verified credit report for mortgage shopping instead of paying for multiple checks
• Give homebuyers the ability to use portable credit reports—the same report across different lenders

These changes would take pressure off costs immediately.

The Bottom Line

You’re paying more for your mortgage because the credit bureaus have a government-protected monopoly and no reason to stop raising prices.

This isn’t a free market problem that will fix itself. It’s a regulation problem that needs Congress to act.

The credit bureaus already have the data on homebuyers. They already have the systems in place. They’re not raising prices because the work got harder. They’re raising prices because they can.

And that’s on Congress to fix.

Where This Comes From

The data in this post comes from the Broker Action Coalition, which has been tracking credit bureau pricing and practices.

Sources:

• Broker Action Coalition analysis of credit bureau pricing trends (2024)
• Federal lending requirements for mortgage credit reports
• Credit bureau workforce data from company filings and public reports