Definition

• Equifax is one of the three national credit bureaus, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco website; the other two are TransUnion and Experian. All three bureaus compile personal, demographic and financial information about you and provide it in report form to banks, lenders, landlords, insurers, employers and others who have a legitimate need to review it. The bureaus are all independent companies, so your Equifax report may have minor differences when compared to TransUnion and Experian. A major item such as a bankruptcy generally appears on all three.
  
  

Reporting

• Creditors continually report information about your accounts to Equifax and the other bureaus. They share data about your balance, credit limit and payment dates, the FRBSF site advises. Lenders also alert the bureau to certain negative actions, such as account write-offs or car repossessions. Bankruptcy is a court action that involves multiple creditors, so Equifax usually gets information about it from public records.
  
  

Time Frame

• All three credit bureaus report bankruptcies for 10 years, according to the FTC site. The reporting period is the same for Chapter 7 bankruptcies, which liquidate most of your assets and gets rid of most bills, as for Chapter 13 filings, which let you keep much of your property and make a repayment plan. This contrasts with most other negative credit report entries, which the bureaus erase within seven years.
  
  

Monitoring

• Equifax is required by federal law to give you a free credit report each year, which allows you to confirm if your bankruptcy appears in your file. The FTC advises that you must get the free report from annualcreditreport.com, the official website run by all three bureaus to comply with the Fair Credit Reporting Act. Experian and TransUnion are also obligated to give you free reports, but all three bureaus make you pay if you place orders on their own websites. You are allowed to dispute the bankruptcy entry with Equifax if there are any incorrect details, according to the FTC. The company removes negative items if the bureaus do not verify them within 30 days.