Independent profile — not affiliated with TransUnion

TransUnion

TransUnion (NYSE: TRU) is one of the three nationwide U.S. consumer reporting agencies, operating through subsidiaries including Trans Union LLC and TransUnion Interactive, Inc. from headquarters in Chicago. The company has been the subject of a 2017 CFPB consent order over marketing of credit-monitoring subscriptions, a 2022 CFPB lawsuit alleging it kept violating that order (voluntarily dismissed with prejudice in 2025), a separate 2023 CFPB consent order over delayed security freezes (terminated in November 2025 after TransUnion paid the required penalty and redress), a 1990s-2000s FTC order on the sale of "target marketing" lists, which the D.C. Circuit upheld in 2001 (Supreme Court review was denied in 2002), and the 2021 Supreme Court standing case Ramirez v. TransUnion. In July 2025 TransUnion disclosed a data breach, via a third-party customer-support application, affecting more than 4.4 million people. Complaint and review snapshots reported separately below include roughly 4.99 million CFPB complaints on file (about 2.26 million in the last 12 months), a BBB profile with 27,356 complaints in three years and a 1.09-out-of-5 average from 211 reviews, an unclaimed Trustpilot profile at 1.8 out of 5 from 73 reviews, and 153 of this site's own approved posts (dated 2001-2013) naming TransUnion as the subject.

COMPLAINTS153
VERIFIED PHONE800-916-8800
LAST CHECKED2026-09-28
Write a Review Jump to complaints ↓
CONSUMER ALLEGATION

Complaints & Reviews on USAComplaints

USAComplaints currently maintains 153 historical complaints about TransUnion, published between 2001 and 2013. No approved complaints have been published on this site during the last three years. For a current reputation snapshot, see the independent sources below.

EDITORIAL

Complaint Themes

Named jointly with Equifax and/or Experian over the same reporting issueIdentity theft or fraudulent accounts appearing on fileTrueCredit / credit-monitoring subscription billing complaintsDisputed information not investigated, or reinserted after correction

Each tag reflects a complaint's single primary theme (not every angle it raised), and complaints outside any problem theme — a positive report, or one later retracted by its author — aren't tagged. Counts may total less than the full complaint count above.

EXTERNAL SOURCE

Independent Sources

Shown for context — not merged with USAComplaints' own numbers.

BBB: 211 reviews, 27356 complaints
CFPB: 4986093 complaints
Trustpilot: 73 reviews,
VERIFIED

Contacts & Login

VERIFIED

Locations

TypeAddress
Headquarters555 W. Adams Street Chicago IL 60661
Mailing addressP.O. Box 160 Woodlyn PA 19094
EDITORIAL

Problem with your TransUnion credit report, a freeze, or a surprise charge? Where to go

TransUnion is one of the three nationwide credit bureaus (along with Equifax and Experian); most people encounter it not by choice but because a lender, landlord, insurer or employer pulled a report TransUnion compiled about them. TransUnion's own consumer-support pages describe several free, self-service channels through the "TransUnion Service Center" account:

  • Dispute an item on your report: start online through a free TransUnion Service Center account at the company's credit-disputes page; you can attach supporting documents and track the status of an open dispute.
  • Freeze or unfreeze your credit report: free to add, remove, or temporarily lift, online, or by phone at 800-916-8800, or by mail to TransUnion, P.O. Box 160, Woodlyn, PA 19094 (TransUnion's site says a mailed freeze request must include your name, address and Social Security number).
  • Add or remove a fraud alert: free 1-year, 7-year, or Active Duty Military alerts; TransUnion's site states an initial fraud alert entitles you to one free credit report and an extended alert to two.
  • Get your free weekly credit reports: TransUnion's own site directs consumers to the joint industry site annualcreditreport.com rather than a TransUnion-branded page.
  • Opt out of prescreened credit/insurance offers: through TransUnion's prescreen opt-out page or the joint industry site optoutprescreen.com.

TransUnion's general consumer-support page does not publish a phone number for reaching a live person; its support page lists the Service Center line at 800-916-8800. Multiple recent reviews on TransUnion's BBB profile describe long waits or automated phone trees that failed to correctly process a freeze request — if a self-service freeze or dispute genuinely does not go through, keep a record of the date, time and confirmation (if any), and consider following up in writing through the Service Center rather than relying on a phone call alone.

EDITORIAL

FTC and CFPB actions against TransUnion

FTC — sale of "target marketing" lists (resolved 2002). The Federal Trade Commission found that Trans Union sold lists of consumers' names, addresses and financial profiles — compiled from credit data — to marketers for purposes other than credit, insurance or employment decisions, which the FTC held was not a permitted use of that data under the Fair Credit Reporting Act. Trans Union challenged the FTC's order on First Amendment grounds. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit rejected that challenge and denied rehearing, holding that Trans Union's target-marketing lists were private commercial speech entitled only to intermediate scrutiny and that the FCRA's distinction between permitting sale of data for prescreening credit offers but not for general marketing was constitutional. The Supreme Court denied Trans Union's petition for certiorari in 2002, leaving the FTC's order in place.

CFPB — 2017 consent order on credit-monitoring marketing. In 2017 the CFPB found that TransUnion and TransUnion Interactive, Inc. ("TUI") had engaged in deceptive marketing of credit scores, reports and credit-monitoring subscriptions. Under a 2017 consent order, the companies were required to pay $13.93 million in restitution to consumers and a $3 million civil penalty, covering an estimated 700,000 consumers who had enrolled in the TU Credit Monitoring product through a negative-option (automatic-renewal) offer and cancelled within two billing cycles without getting a refund. The order also required an affirmative consent checkbox before enrolling anyone in a negative-option subscription, clear cancellation-and-refund procedures, and certain advertising disclosures.

CFPB — 2022 lawsuit alleging the 2017 order was violated (dismissed 2025). On April 12, 2022, the CFPB sued TransUnion, Trans Union LLC, TransUnion Interactive, Inc., and TUI's former president John T. Danaher in federal court in Chicago, alleging the companies never actually stopped the practices the 2017 order was meant to end — including enrolling consumers in negative-option credit-monitoring subscriptions without the required consent checkbox, running "FREE" or "$1" credit-score ads (including on annualcreditreport.com) that led to an automatic $16.99-a-month subscription, and failing to get proper authorization for recurring bank-account debits under the Electronic Fund Transfer Act. The complaint, amended in May 2023, alleged Danaher personally instructed staff to stop using the required consent checkbox in affiliate marketing because it reduced enrollment revenue. On February 28, 2025, the CFPB and all defendants filed a joint stipulation voluntarily dismissing the case against all defendants with prejudice, each side bearing its own fees and costs; the dismissal was entered by the court on March 21, 2025. A dismissal with prejudice ends the case without a trial verdict or a new settlement payment, and the CFPB's own case page states only that outcome — it does not describe the dismissal as either a vindication or an admission by either side.

CFPB — 2023 consent order on delayed security freezes and locks (terminated 2025). A separate October 2023 CFPB consent order (File No. 2023-CFPB-0011), to which the respondents consented without admitting or denying its findings, found that TransUnion, Trans Union LLC and TransUnion Interactive, Inc. had, for years, failed to place or remove security freezes and "Locks" (a feature of TransUnion's credit-monitoring and TrueIdentity products) within the deadlines the Fair Credit Reporting Act requires, and in some cases told consumers a freeze or lock had been placed or removed when it had not. The order traces the problem to two internal databases that could fall "Out of Sync," a backlog that grew sharply after the 2017 Equifax breach drove a spike in freeze requests, and separately to a third-party mail-processing vendor that missed deadlines on roughly 17,000 mailed freeze requests (about 12,000 of them from representatives of "Protected Consumers" — minors or people with a guardian, who could only request a freeze by mail). A coding error also failed to keep about 32,000 consumers who renewed a fraud or active-duty alert excluded from prescreened marketing lists as required. Under the order, the companies were required to pay a $5 million civil penalty and $3 million in consumer redress, on top of required changes to internal systems. On November 3, 2025, the CFPB issued an order terminating the consent order, stating that TransUnion had paid the penalty, made the required redress payments, and taken the required corrective steps, and that the Bureau "waives any alleged noncompliance" with the order.

EDITORIAL

Company background

TransUnion says on its own site that it has "been in the business of enabling trust for over 50 years as a credit reporting agency," marking its 50th anniversary in 2018. The publicly traded parent, TransUnion (NYSE: TRU, a Delaware corporation), is headquartered at 555 W. Adams Street, Chicago, Illinois, per its SEC filings. The company that acts as the credit bureau and is named in most consumer litigation and regulatory actions is the subsidiary Trans Union LLC; a separate subsidiary, TransUnion Interactive, Inc. (also referred to in some records as "Consumer Interactive"), develops and sells the direct-to-consumer credit-monitoring and identity products such as TrueIdentity and TU Credit Monitoring. TransUnion's own site lists a series of acquisitions expanding beyond core credit reporting: iovation (device intelligence and fraud prevention) and CallCredit (a UK credit bureau) in 2018; Neustar and Sontiq in 2021; TransUnion says the Neustar acquisition, valued at $3.1 billion, was its largest to date; and Verisk Financial Services, including Argus Information and Advisory Services, in 2022 for $515 million.

Separately, TransUnion's Better Business Bureau file lists a "Business Started" date of December 31, 1947 and a BBB file opened in 1969 — both earlier than TransUnion's own 50th-anniversary claim of 1968 as a credit bureau, likely reflecting a predecessor or parent corporate entity rather than the credit-reporting business itself; this page uses TransUnion's own stated 1968 founding as a credit bureau rather than the BBB dates.

EDITORIAL

Complaint record: USAComplaints, CFPB, BBB, and Trustpilot, reported separately

Because TransUnion is one of the three nationwide credit bureaus, several sources track very large complaint volumes about it; this page reports each separately rather than blending them into one figure:

  • USAComplaints: 153 approved posts on this site name TransUnion (or a TrueCredit/Trans Union variant) as the subject, dated between March 2001 and August 2013; this site's moderation project has, as of this check, worked back through 2020 and has not yet reached posts this old, so these have not been individually re-verified by this site's current review process.
  • CFPB Consumer Complaint Database (company "TRANSUNION INTERMEDIATE HOLDINGS, INC.", checked September 28, 2026): 4,986,093 complaints on file from October 22, 2012 through the date checked, including 2,261,816 in the last 12 months. Top issues: incorrect information on your report, 2,725,269; improper use of your report, 1,164,303; a problem with a company's investigation into an existing dispute, 787,916. TransUnion closed the large majority of these with a non-monetary outcome (2,830,881) or with an explanation (1,947,669); 605 were closed with monetary relief, and 206,915 were still in progress as of the check. TransUnion answered essentially all of these within the CFPB's required timeframe (4,985,769 of 4,986,093, over 99.9 percent). The CFPB does not verify the facts alleged in complaints.
  • BBB: TransUnion LLC is not BBB accredited, and its BBB rating is "Not Rated" — BBB's stated reason is that "the BBB is currently reviewing complaints." BBB shows 27,356 complaints in the last three years (13,841 closed in the last 12 months); separately, BBB's customer-review score is 1.09 out of 5 from 211 reviews, with recent reviews concentrated on difficulty reaching a person and automated phone systems that reviewers say mishandled freeze requests.
  • Trustpilot: an unclaimed profile showing 1.8 out of 5 from 73 reviews; at least one visible review referenced a UK financial product, suggesting this particular Trustpilot page may mix non-U.S. reviewers with U.S. ones rather than reflecting only TransUnion's American consumer base.

Because each of these sources covers a different population, time window and methodology, none of these figures is added to or averaged with any other.

EDITORIAL

Ramirez v. TransUnion (Supreme Court) and the 2025 data-breach lawsuits

Ramirez v. TransUnion, 594 U.S. 413 (2021). Beginning in 2002, TransUnion sold an add-on product, "OFAC Name Screen Alert," that compared a consumer's first and last name only against the U.S. Treasury's list of suspected terrorists, drug traffickers and other serious criminals, and placed an alert on the credit report if the names matched — producing many false "potential match" flags among law-abiding consumers who happened to share a common name. Named plaintiff Sergio Ramirez was refused a car loan at a Nissan dealership in 2011 after his TransUnion report carried such an alert. A class of 8,185 people sued under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, and the jury awarded more than $60 million in statutory and punitive damages; the Ninth Circuit later approved a class damages award of about $40 million. The Supreme Court held that only the 1,853 class members (including Ramirez) whose flagged reports had actually been sent to a third-party business had suffered the kind of concrete harm needed for standing to sue for damages in federal court; the other 6,332 members, whose misleading file was never disclosed to anyone else, did not. The Court reversed the judgment approving the full-class award and sent the case back for further proceedings; the ruling principally addressed constitutional standing to sue for damages.

2025 data breach and related litigation. Trans Union LLC reported that unauthorized access occurred on July 28, 2025 through a third-party application used in its U.S. consumer-support operations; its filing with the Maine Attorney General lists 4,461,511 affected people nationwide. Plaintiffs filed putative class actions alleging that personal information was exposed. On December 16, 2025, the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation centralized the TransUnion actions in the Northern District of Illinois before Judge Robert W. Gettleman as In re Trans Union, LLC, Customer Data Security Breach Litigation, MDL No. 3170. The allegations remain pending and have not been adjudicated.

EDITORIAL

Is TransUnion Legitimate?

TransUnion is a real, publicly traded company (NYSE: TRU) and one of the three federally regulated nationwide consumer reporting agencies, operating through Trans Union LLC and other subsidiaries from headquarters in Chicago, Illinois. It has been the subject of an FTC order on the sale of marketing lists (upheld by the D.C. Circuit in 2001; Supreme Court review denied in 2002), a 2017 CFPB consent order over credit-monitoring marketing, a 2022 CFPB lawsuit alleging continued violations of that order (voluntarily dismissed with prejudice in 2025), and a 2023 CFPB consent order over delayed security freezes (terminated in November 2025 after TransUnion paid the required penalty and completed redress). It also disclosed a data breach affecting more than 4.4 million people in 2025. Consumers should verify that communications and websites use TransUnion's official contact information, particularly when responding to an unsolicited message about a dispute, freeze, subscription or data-breach notice. This page assigns TransUnion no rating, score, or "scam" label of its own; readers can weigh the regulatory and complaint record above for themselves.

PUBLIC RECORD

Court & Public Records

CaseAuthorityDatesTypeOutcomeSource
Trans Union Corp. v. Federal Trade Commission
Docket No. 00-1141		U.S. Court of Appeals, D.C. Circuit (cert. denied, U.S. Supreme Court)—
JudgmentJudgment entered

The FTC found that Trans Union's sale of "target marketing" lists — consumer names, addresses and financial profiles compiled from credit data and sold to marketers for purposes other than credit, insurance or employment decisions — was not a permitted use under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, and ordered Trans Union to stop. The D.C. Circuit rejected Trans Union's First Amendment challenge to that order and denied rehearing, holding the target-marketing lists were private commercial speech subject only to intermediate scrutiny and that the FCRA's differing treatment of prescreening versus target-marketing data sales was constitutional. The U.S. Supreme Court denied Trans Union's petition for certiorari in 2002, leaving the FTC's order in place.

Source
In re: TransUnion — CFPB Consent Order on credit-monitoring marketing
Docket 2017-CFPB-0002		Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (administrative proceeding)
SettledSettled

In Consent Order 2017-CFPB-0002, filed January 3, 2017, the CFPB identified deceptive marketing of credit scores and negative-option credit-monitoring subscriptions by TransUnion, Trans Union LLC and TransUnion Interactive, Inc. The respondents consented without admitting or denying the findings of fact or conclusions of law, except the facts necessary to establish the Bureau's jurisdiction. The order required them to reserve or deposit $13,930,000 for redress to affected consumers (about 700,000), pay a $3,000,000 civil penalty, obtain affirmative consent for negative-option enrollment, and provide a simple cancellation mechanism.

Source
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau v. TransUnion, Trans Union LLC, TransUnion Interactive, Inc., and John T. Danaher
Docket No. 1:22-cv-01880		U.S. District Court, N.D. Illinois
DismissedDismissed

The CFPB alleged the TransUnion companies and former TUI president John Danaher continued the deceptive negative-option credit-monitoring marketing the 2017 consent order was meant to stop, ran misleading "free"/"$1" credit-score advertising, and failed to properly authorize recurring bank debits under the Electronic Fund Transfer Act; the complaint was amended in May 2023. On February 28, 2025, the CFPB and all defendants filed a joint stipulation voluntarily dismissing the case against all defendants with prejudice, each side bearing its own fees and costs; the court entered the dismissal on March 21, 2025. These are allegations from a complaint that was never tried; the case ended by dismissal, not a verdict or a new settlement.

Source
In the Matter of TransUnion, Trans Union LLC, and TransUnion Interactive, Inc. (security freezes and locks)
Docket 2023-CFPB-0011		Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (administrative proceeding), File No. 2023-CFPB-0011
SettledSettled

In Consent Order 2023-CFPB-0011 (filed October 12, 2023), the CFPB identified failures by TransUnion, Trans Union LLC and TransUnion Interactive, Inc. to timely place or remove security freezes and "Locks" as required by the Fair Credit Reporting Act, including sometimes telling consumers a freeze or lock had been placed or removed when it had not, and failures to exclude roughly 32,000 consumers who renewed a fraud or active-duty alert from prescreened marketing lists. The respondents consented to the order without admitting or denying the findings of fact or conclusions of law, except the facts necessary to establish the Bureau's jurisdiction. The order required a $5 million civil penalty and a $3 million consumer-redress reserve, plus system fixes. On November 3, 2025, the CFPB terminated the consent order, stating that the respondents had paid the $5 million penalty, made the redress payments required by the order, and taken steps to implement the required injunctive relief; the Bureau also "waives any alleged noncompliance therewith."

Source
TransUnion LLC v. Ramirez
Docket No. 20-297		Supreme Court of the United States—
Appeal decidedAppeal decided — see outcome

A class of 8,185 people sued TransUnion under the FCRA over its "OFAC Name Screen Alert" product, which had flagged consumers as a "potential match" to names on a U.S. Treasury list of suspected terrorists and other serious criminals based only on matching first and last names; a jury awarded more than $60 million; the Ninth Circuit later approved a class damages award of about $40 million. The Supreme Court held that only the 1,853 class members (including named plaintiff Sergio Ramirez) whose misleading credit reports were actually disseminated to a third-party business had suffered a concrete injury sufficient for Article III standing to sue for damages; the remaining 6,332 members, whose internal file was never disclosed to anyone else, did not have standing. The Court reversed the Ninth Circuit's judgment approving the full-class award and remanded for further proceedings.

Source
In re Trans Union, LLC, Customer Data Security Breach Litigation
Docket MDL No. 3170		U.S. District Court, N.D. Illinois (MDL)FiledFiled — no final outcome recorded

Putative class actions alleging that personal information was exposed in TransUnion's July 2025 data breach were centralized by the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation on December 16, 2025 in the Northern District of Illinois before Judge Robert W. Gettleman — allegations only; no ruling on the merits was found as of September 28, 2026.

Source
EDITORIAL

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I dispute an error on my TransUnion credit report?

TransUnion's own site directs consumers to start a dispute for free through a TransUnion Service Center account at its credit-disputes page, where you can attach supporting documents and track the status of an open dispute online. TransUnion's page states the process is "fast, easy, free and secure."

How do I freeze or unfreeze my TransUnion credit report?

According to TransUnion's own site, adding, removing, or temporarily lifting a security freeze is free and can be done online through the TransUnion Service Center, through the automated freeze line at 888-909-8872 (Consumer Relations: 800-916-8800), or by mailing a written request with your name, address and Social Security number to TransUnion, P.O. Box 160, Woodlyn, PA 19094. TransUnion's page states a freeze will not affect your credit score. Note that freezing your TransUnion report does not freeze your Equifax or Experian reports — each bureau has to be contacted separately.

How do I add a fraud alert with TransUnion?

TransUnion's site describes free 1-year, 7-year, and Active Duty Military fraud alerts that can be added or removed at any time through the TransUnion Service Center. TransUnion's page states that an initial fraud alert entitles you to one free credit report, and an extended fraud alert to two free reports.

Was I affected by the 2025 TransUnion data breach?

TransUnion disclosed that a July 28, 2025 breach of a third-party customer-support application affected more than 4.4 million people nationwide, according to reporting on TransUnion's filing with the Maine Attorney General's office. TransUnion said the affected data excluded credit reports or core credit information, and it mailed notification letters to affected individuals offering two years of free credit monitoring. If you are unsure whether you were notified, contact TransUnion directly rather than clicking a link in an unsolicited email, since breach notices are also a common phishing lure.

Why was I charged for a TransUnion credit-monitoring subscription I don't remember agreeing to?

A 2017 CFPB consent order and a related 2022 CFPB lawsuit both concerned TransUnion's TU Credit Monitoring product being sold through negative-option (automatic-renewal) offers — including ads offering a "free" or "$1" credit score that converted into an ongoing monthly subscription after a trial period unless cancelled. The 2022 lawsuit was voluntarily dismissed with prejudice in 2025 and did not result in a new judgment or settlement. If you see a charge you don't recognize, TransUnion's support page says its credit memberships (Credit Essentials, free; Credit Premium, paid) can be canceled online under Settings, then Membership Details, or by phone at 833-543-4353; that is the channel to request cancellation and ask about a refund; keep records of when you called and what you were told.

Is TransUnion currently under a CFPB order or lawsuit?

Not as of this check. The CFPB's 2022 lawsuit against TransUnion, Trans Union LLC, TransUnion Interactive, Inc. and former executive John Danaher was voluntarily dismissed with prejudice by all parties in early 2025. A separate 2023 CFPB consent order over delayed security freezes and locks was terminated by the CFPB on November 3, 2025, after the Bureau found TransUnion had paid the required $5 million penalty, completed the required consumer redress, and made the required system changes.

How do I get a free TransUnion credit report?

TransUnion's own site directs consumers to the joint industry site annualcreditreport.com to get a free report, rather than hosting its own separate free-report page. Free weekly online reports from all three bureaus are available through AnnualCreditReport.com.

What was the Ramirez v. TransUnion Supreme Court case about?

Ramirez v. TransUnion (2021) was a Fair Credit Reporting Act class action over TransUnion's "OFAC Name Screen Alert" product, which had flagged consumers as a "potential match" to a name on the U.S. Treasury's list of suspected terrorists and other serious criminals based only on a first-and-last-name match. The Supreme Court did not decide whether the underlying practice was accurate; it ruled on a narrower question of who in the 8,185-member class had suffered enough concrete harm to have standing to sue for damages, finding that the 1,853 members whose flagged report was actually sent to a business (including named plaintiff Sergio Ramirez) had standing on the reasonable-procedures claim, and sending the case back to the lower courts.

How do I contact TransUnion?

TransUnion's consumer-support page lists the Service Center line at 800-916-8800 (disputes, freezes, fraud alerts and credit reports), an automated freeze line at 888-909-8872, and separate numbers for account login help (833-806-1627) and paid memberships. Its corporate headquarters number is 312-985-2000, according to its SEC filings.

What is the difference between a TransUnion fraud alert and a credit freeze?

A fraud alert asks lenders to verify your identity before opening credit. TransUnion's fraud-alert page says an initial fraud alert lasts 1 year and an extended fraud alert lasts seven years (it requires proof of identity theft), both are free, and when you add one at TransUnion, "We'll also notify Experian and Equifax so they can add an alert to the report they have for you." A credit freeze blocks most new access to your TransUnion credit report until you lift it; TransUnion's freeze page lists an automated phone line (888-909-8872) to add, remove or lift a freeze, the Service Center at 800-916-8800 for questions, and a mail option (TransUnion, P.O. Box 160, Woodlyn, PA 19094). Unlike a fraud alert, a freeze is not passed on: TransUnion's freeze FAQ says "A TransUnion freeze only covers your TransUnion report. You must also contact Equifax and Experian individually."