Banks usually decline to advertise internal methodologies for determining creditworthiness, but Wells Fargo confirms it pulls reports from all three major credit bureaus. A representative with the bank also confirmed the financial institution reports credit activity to all three major consumer reporting agencies.
Wells Fargo Credit Cards Overview
Wells Fargo offers a handful of both personal credit cards and business credit cards with perks and benefits ranging from cash back to rewards to balance transfer offers. The company may have a smaller range of cards, but the selection is big enough many will find something fitting the bill.
Which Credit Bureau Does Wells Fargo Use?
Wells Fargo uses information from all major consumer reporting agencies when evaluating consumer credit card applications, confirms a Wells Fargo spokesperson. These agencies are used to obtain information about the credit card applicant’s handling of their credit obligations such as depth of credit history, on-time payments, open and closed accounts, types of accounts including installment, revolving, secured and unsecured and credit utilization.
When Does Wells Fargo Report to Credit Bureaus?
Wells Fargo reports to all major credit reporting agencies. Credit card issuers typically report to bureaus at the same time as your monthly billing statement or soon after. In some cases, changes may be reflected right away in your credit report; in others, it may take more than a month to update. If, for example, you pay your bill before you receive the billing statement, you will see a change on your credit report sooner than if you paid the bill just after receiving the statement.
Which Credit Bureau Is Most Accurate?
Three major credit bureaus dominate consumer credit reporting in the United States: Equifax, TransUnion and Experian. These companies bear responsibility for providing consumer credit reports to lenders who use the information to evaluate risk. The credit business turns a large profit each year by selling credit information, which has been voluntarily provided to them by banks, lenders and other data furnishers—including Wells Fargo.
Information on a consumer varies by agency; no credit bureau collects the same information. A report from one credit bureau may have different information compared to one drawn from another for several reasons. Because each agency’s information is different, it’s impossible to characterize information from one credit bureau as more accurate than another. Most credit bureaus will rate your credit based on a standardized system, often referred to as a FICO credit score. Major U.S. lenders are most likely to check this score when assessing your credit and use that information, along with other internal criteria to make their decisions when it comes to issuing loans, like credit cards.
Credit bureaus may differ slightly on the exact number of your FICO credit score. Each score falls within a range—for example, a score between 670 and 739 is considered average or fair credit, but extreme differences between FICO scores issued by credit bureaus are unlikely.
How to Get a Credit Report
You may request your credit report via multiple avenues. If you’re looking for a free and easy method, use AnnualCreditReport.com—the one website authorized to generate free reports. Forbes Advisor has a detailed guide to walk you through the process. You can also call AnnualCreditReport.com directly at 1-877-322-8228.
Each consumer is, by law, entitled to at least one free credit report per year from each of the three major agencies (note that you can get one free report per week through the end of 2022 as a pandemic-related benefit). You can ask for these reports any time during the year and you are not obligated to request them together—meaning you can ask for your Equifax report in January and your Experian report in July.
Credit bureaus offer options to generate more regular credit reports or provide advanced features if you sign up through their websites, but keep in mind this service usually requires a one-time or subscription fee and will not provide you access to reports from any other bureau.
How to Dispute Information on Your Credit Report
If you find yourself with the need to dispute information on your credit report because of an error, you can use Forbes Advisor’s comprehensive guide to help you open a dispute. You will need to prepare your personal information and sufficient documentation of the error before you’ll be ready to submit a dispute. You can dispute errors directly with each credit bureau any of three ways: online, by mail or by phone. The credit bureau you file a dispute with will investigate your claim and release results within 30 to 45 days.
If the results lead to a change in your credit report, you will receive a free, updated copy of your report—but this may take another 45 days. If you are not happy with the results of the dispute, you can resubmit with any additional supporting information to help your case.
Bottom Line
If you are concerned about your FICO credit score while applying for a Wells Fargo credit card, pull your free credit report to see what data the bank will be most likely to base its final decision on.
If you’re not certain your score is good enough to be approved, you may want to first work on improving your credit. If you have a strong reason for concern, it may be a better option in the long run to focus on re-building and strengthening your credit score across all bureaus—it’s never guaranteed Wells Fargo will pull from any specific credit bureau, so you’ll want to ensure your credit scores are high across every major agency.
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