What is CREDCO and why is it on my credit report?

If you see an inquiry from CREDCO on your credit reports, it’s likely associated with CoreLogic Credco.

CoreLogic Credco is a third-party consumer credit reporting agency that provides merged credit reports to a number of mortgage lenders. These are called merged credit reports because they combine data from the single reports of the three major consumer credit bureaus: Equifax, Experian and TransUnion.

Lenders may use CoreLogic Credco’s merged reports to help determine whether to approve you for a loan. So a CREDCO inquiry on your credit reports could simply mean that you recently applied for a mortgage with a lender that relies on CoreLogic Credco for its credit-report needs.

Recent mortgage application not ringing any bells? There are other legitimate reasons CREDCO might show up on your credit reports. We’ll take a look at some of those below and walk through what you can do if you spot an account you don’t recognize on your credit reports.

• Why is CREDCO on my credit reports?
• What types of loans is CREDCO associated with?
• Next steps: What to do if there’s an inquiry or account you don’t recognize on your credit reports

Why is CREDCO on my credit reports?

Perhaps you’re familiar with that moment of cold panic that comes when you check your credit reports and spot an unfamiliar name. Not a great feeling, right? But there’s often a legitimate reason for strange terms showing up on your credit reports. In the case of CREDCO, it likely relates to the tools that lenders use to determine whether to approve you for a loan.

CREDCO is the credit report name associated with CoreLogic Credco, a consumer credit reporting agency whose parent company is CoreLogic. If you simply poke around its very corporate-looking website, it can be difficult to determine what exactly CoreLogic does. While the company’s data and services touch an impressive variety of industries, for the purposes of this article we can boil it down to this: CoreLogic Credco provides credit reports to lenders.

But not just any credit reports. CoreLogic Credco specializes in merged credit reports, which bring together data from all three of the major consumer credit bureaus. The lenders, in turn, use these three-bureau credit reports to help determine whether to approve loan applications.

Pretty nifty stuff. These merged reports are CoreLogic Credco’s bread and butter, but the company actually offers a number of different credit reports to lenders. Here’s a breakdown of what we’ll call the “Big Three.”

• Instant Merge — CoreLogic Credco’s website calls this “the mortgage industry’s most widely used and accepted” three-bureau merged credit report. So, it’s a good bet that a CREDCO inquiry on your credit report is of the Instant Merge variety.
• Instant Merge PreQual — This is a single-bureau credit report and FICO® score — the diet version of Instant Merge, if you will. Lenders don’t use this type of credit report to make a final lending decision, but it can be a way to help them determine whether you prequalify for a loan. This type of credit inquiry counts as a soft inquiry, so you may, or may not, see it on your credit reports. (More on this below.)
• Instant Merge Soft Touch — This is a soft-inquiry credit report approved by the three national credit bureaus for use in consumer counseling. Again, since it’s a soft inquiry, you may or may not see it on your credit reports.

Now that we’ve introduced CoreLogic Credco, let’s talk briefly about hard and soft inquiries to shed some more light on why CREDCO might be popping up on your credit reports.

Hard and soft credit inquiries

It seems likely that, in most cases, CREDCO will appear on your credit reports because it’s associated with a credit inquiry (otherwise known as a “credit pull”). There are two types of credit inquiries, and the distinction between them is important.

A hard credit inquiry (or “hard pull”) generally occurs when a financial institution checks your credit when making a lending decision. These commonly take place when you apply for a mortgage or loan, and you typically have to authorize them.

If you applied for a mortgage or other type of loan recently and had to provide authorization for a hard inquiry, you may have provided that authorization to CoreLogic Credco rather than the lender itself. (If you don’t think you’ve authorized a hard inquiry, there are some steps you can take to help lessen the consequences of potential identity  theft and fraud.)

A soft credit inquiry (or “soft pull”) typically occurs when a person or company checks your credit as part of a background check. In the case of CoreLogic Credco, each of the Instant Merge PreQual and Instant Merge Soft Touch credit reports involves a soft credit inquiry.

Unlike hard inquiries, soft inquiries won’t affect your credit scores. And you may or may not see them in your credit reports, depending on the credit bureau. To learn more, check out our article on hard and soft credit inquiries and how they impact your credit.

What types of loans is CREDCO associated with?

CoreLogic Credco’s website states that “19 of the top 20 mortgage lenders” use its Instant Merge three-bureau merged credit report, so a CREDCO inquiry is probably more common than you might imagine. If you recently applied for a mortgage with a company like Wells Fargo, that’s probably why you’re seeing it.

It’s important to note that, while mortgage is a significant part of CoreLogic Credco’s business, the company’s data and consumer information services touch a number of other industries as well.

One notable industry when it comes to CoreLogic Credco’s credit-reporting services is the automotive industry. Auto dealers and lenders may partner with the company to order credit reports from all three bureaus from a single source — so if you’ve recently applied for an auto loan and see CREDCO on your reports, we may have just cracked the case.

Still unsure about a CREDCO mention on your reports and want some additional information? Just call them. You can reach the company’s consumer assistance telephone number at 800-637-2422 on weekdays from 6 a.m. to 5 p.m. Pacific time.

Next steps: What to do if there’s an inquiry or account you don’t recognize on your credit reports

If you’re digging around trying to find out why a name like CREDCO is showing up on your credit reports, you’re practicing good credit hygiene. Congrats! Identity theft and fraud are things to take seriously, and we commend you for doing the research to stay on top of your credit.

Then again, you shouldn’t assume an inquiry or account is fraudulent just because you don’t immediately recognize the name. In some cases, lenders may partner with third-party services and companies like CoreLogic Credco. So it’s worth doing a bit of extra research before you take steps to dispute it as a credit report error.

Here’s an extra bit of good news: Credit Karma offers a number of free tools and services to help you protect your credit. These include …

• Free credit-monitoring — This service can alert you to important changes on your credit reports. Along with checking your credit scores regularly, this feature sends you an alert so you can check any suspicious activity and report any instances of identity theft.
• Free identity monitoring — This service notifies you when Credit Karma learns there’s been a data breach in which your information may have been compromised. We’ll also give you tips on how to lock your credit with the three major consumer credit bureaus.