What Credit Bureau Does American Express Pull?

Introduction

In this post we will look at what credit bureau (consumer reporting agency) American Express pulls for credit cards that they issue (the credit bureau that is used for third partner American Express cards/cards that run on the American Express payment network will depend on who issues those cards).

With American Express the bureau they use is normally Experian, but in some cases they will use another bureau depending on what state you live in largely depends on what state you live in, we’ve compiled the following information from the start of 2014.  Feel free to add your data points in the comments and we’ll add them to this post.

You can also read other posts in this series by clicking below:

• Bank of America
• Barclaycard
• Capital One
• Chase
• Citi
• Discover
• U.S. Bank
• Wells Fargo

Table Key & Combined Stats

To keep things easy, we will use the following acronyms.

EX = Experian
EQ = Equifax
TU = TransUnion
NI = No information

The number next to the acronym represents the number of data points we have. In total we have 390 data points sourced from the Credit Boards Credit Pull page. Of those applications:

• 372 or ~95% of all applications pulled an Experian credit report
• 9 or ~2.5%  of all applications pulled an Equifax credit report
• 9 or ~2.5% of all applications pulled an TransUnion credit report

It was also interesting in that with data points where a TransUnion/Equifax credit report was used, the applications were usually denied. I assume this is because these secondary reports were pulled when there was significantly doubt on whether an applicant should be approved or not.

The Table

Abbrevation	State Name	Credit Bureau Pulled
AL	Alabama	EX: 2
AK	Alaska	NI
AZ	Arizona	EX: 6
AR	Arkansas	EX: 3
CA	California	EX: 41 TU: 2 EQ: 1
CO	Colorado	EX: 16
CT	Connecticut	EX: 4 TU: 1
DE	Delaware	EX: 5
FL	Florida	EX: 27 TU: 1 EQ: 1
GA	Georgia	EX: 18 TU: 2
HI	Hawaii	NI
ID	Idaho	EX: 2
IL	Illinois	EX: 19
IN	Indiana	EX: 2
IA	Iowa	NI
KS	Kansas	EX: 1
KY	Kentucky	EX: 5
LA	Louisiana	EX: 1
ME	Maine	NI
MD	Maryland	EX: 7
MA	Massachusetts	EX:12
MI	Michigan	EX: 9
MN	Minnesota	EX: 4
MS	Mississippi	EX: 2 EQ: 2
MO	Missouri	EX: 3
MT	Montana	NI: 0
NE	Nebraska	NI: 0
NV	Nevada	EX: 2
NH	New Hampshire	EX: 4
NJ	New Jersey	EX: 16
NM	New Mexico	EX: 2
NY	New York	EX: 38 TU: 2
NC	North Carolina	EX: 12
ND	North Dakota	NI
OH	Ohio	EX: 8
OK	Oklahoma	EX: 3
OR	Oregon	EX: 6
PA	Pennsylvania	EX: 9
RI	Rhode Island	NI
SC	South Carolina	EX: 6
SD	South Dakota	NI
TN	Tennessee	EX: 7
TX	Texas	EX: 43 TU: 1 EQ: 1
UT	Utah	EX: 3
VT	Vermont	NI
VA	Virginia	EX: 4 EQ: 2 TU: 1
WA	Washington	EX: 15 EQ: 1
WV	West Virginia	NI:
WI	Wisconsin	EX: 4
WY	Wyoming	NI:
DC	Capital	EX: 3 EQ: 1

What Happens If Your Experian Report Is Frozen?

American Express does not allow frozen credit reports unfortunately. So you would need to unfreeze that report first.

Our Verdict

American Express will almost always pull your Experian credit report. It looks like in some fringe cases they’ll pull Equifax or TransUnion, but there are no states where that is the normal. If you want to learn more about American Express credit cards, I’d read our piece on things everybody should know about their cards. You might also be interested in our credit card reference page.