industry information technology founded february 8 1968 headquarters chicago illinois united states area served worldwide key people jim peck products credit reports services credit information revenue us 1.3 billion 2014 number of employees 4 100 1 2015 website transunion.com transunion is an american company that provides credit information and information management services to approximately 45 000 businesses and approximately 500 million consumers worldwide in 33 countries . 2 it is also the third largest credit bureau in the united states . like major competitors equifax and experian transunion markets credit reports directly to consumers . the company is based in chicago illinois and its revenue in 2014 was us 1.3 billion . 3 contents 1 history 2 legal and regulatory issues 3 see also 4 references 5 external links history edit transunion was originally formed in 1968 as a holding company for the railroad leasing organization union tank car company . the following year it acquired the credit bureau of cook county which possessed and maintained 3.6 million card files . 2 in 1981 a chicago based holding company the marmon group acquired transunion for approximately 688 million . 4 5 almost thirty years later in 2010 goldman sachs capital partners and advent international acquired it from madison dearborn partners 6 in 2014 transunion acquired hank asher s data company tlo . 7 on june 25 2015 transunion became a publicly traded company for the first time trading under the symbol tru . transunion has evolved its business over the years to offer products and services for both businesses and consumers . for businesses transunion has evolved its traditional credit score offering to include trended data that helps predict consumer repayment and debt behavior . this product referred to as creditvision launched in oct. 2013 . 8 its smartmove service facilitates credit and background checks for consumers who may be serving in a landlord capacity . 9 in september 2013 the company acquired escan data systems of austin to provide post service eligibility determination support to hospitals and healthcare systems . the technology was integrated into transunion s cleariq platform that tracks patients demographic and insurance related information to support benefit verification . 10 in november 2013 transunion merged with tlo llc a company that leverages data in support of its investigative and risk management tools . its tloxp technology aggregates data sets and using a proprietary algorithm to uncover relationships between data that were not possible before . 11 in 2014 a transunion analysis found that reporting rental payment information to credit bureaus can positively affect credit scores . to benefit consumers they initiated a service called residentcredit making it easy for property owners to report data about their tenants to transunion on a monthly basis . these reports include the amount each tenant pays the timeliness of their last payment and any remaining balance the tenant currently owes . as a result companies have started reporting rent payment information to transunion including yapstone inc. pangea real estate and rentreporters . as part of its fraud protection products it also offers business a tool called decisionedge that aggregates the data needed to prevent fraud through a system that customizes the information needed to finalize a transaction . 12 for consumers transunion offers credit monitoring and identity theft protection tools . the company s app offers a function called creditlock that allows an individual to unlock and lock their credit to help protect against fraudulent activity . legal and regulatory issues edit in 2003 judy thomas of klamath falls oregon was awarded 5.3 million in a successful lawsuit against transunion . the award was made on the grounds that it took her six years to get transunion to remove incorrect information in her credit report . 13 in 2006 after spending two years trying to correct erroneous credit information that resulted from being a victim of identity theft a fraud victim named sloan filed suit against all three of the usa s largest credit agencies . transunion and experian settled out of court for an undisclosed amount . in sloan v. equifax a jury awarded sloan 351 000 . she wrote letters . she called them . they saw the problem . they just didn t fix it said attorney a. hugo blankingship iii of blankingship & associates in alexandria virginia . 14 transunion has also been criticized for concealing charges . many users complained of not being aware of a 17.95 month charge for holding a transunion account . 15 in march 2015 following a settlement with the new york attorney general transunion along with other credit reporting companies experian and equifax agreed to help consumers with errors and red flags on credit reports . under the new settlement credit reporting firms are required to use trained employees to respond when a consumer flags a mistake on their file . these employees are responsible for communicating with the lender and resolving the dispute . 16 see also edit transunion canada references edit transunion csr report 2015 pdf . transunion . transunion . retrieved 29 june 2015 . a b transunion company history . transunion . transunion . retrieved 13 may 2015 . transunion sec filing 2014 . sec . sec . retrieved 13 may 2015 . marmon group cunningham lawrence . book all one . berkshire beyond buffett the enduring value of values . . new york columbia business school . retrieved 13 may 2015 . advent and goldman to buy transunion in 3b deal . new york times . new york times . retrieved 13 may 2015 . transunion closes acquisition of tlo . inside arm . inside arm . retrieved 13 may 2015 . how borrowers can use transunion creditvision to get better loan rates gobankingrates . gobankingrates . retrieved 2015 12 14 . tenant screening why landlords conduct background checks before accepting your offer should you be worried . realty today . 2015 11 25 . retrieved 2015 12 14 . transunion acquires austin s escan data systems austin business journal . austin business journal . retrieved 2015 12 14 . court gives approval for transunion tlo merger . venture capital post . 2013 11 23 . retrieved 2015 12 14 . transunion enhances fraud detection . it online . retrieved 2015 12 14 . block sandra . fixing errors in credit report is no small task usa today 2005 08 27 . baldas tresa . consumer lawsuits against credit bureaus are multiplying the national law journal 2006 08 16 . http www.consumeraffairs.com privacy transunion.html . missing or empty title help http money.cnn.com 2015 03 09 pf credit reporting agencies settlement . cnn money . cnn . retrieved 13 may 2015 . external link in title help external links edit transunion website truecredit website transunion s consumer facing property smartmove website transunion s tenant screening service retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title transunion & oldid 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