What Credit Bureau Does Lending Club Use?

Lending Club pulls your TransUnion credit report and the accompanying FICO score the moment you submit an application. The pull registers as a hard inquiry on your TransUnion report and can momentarily lower your score.

The inquiry happens instantly after you provide personal data, granting Lending Club access to payment history, balances, public records, and the TransUnion‑derived FICO score (typically the latest FICO model they support). This TransUnion pull drives the initial underwriting decision; any checks of other bureaus appear only later in the process.

LendingClub derives your loan odds from the combined information in the Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion credit reports, not from a single bureau; the engine evaluates each FICO score, payment history, and debt‑to‑income ratio together. When TransUnion data appears to dominate, it's usually because that file contains the highest score or the most recent activity, which nudges the overall risk metric upward.

• All three bureaus are queried during pre‑qualification, generating soft pulls on each.
• The decision model weighs every score equally, but a higher TransUnion FICO can improve the composite risk profile.
• No regulatory rule ties offers specifically to a TransUnion score; the final rate reflects the aggregate credit picture.
• LendingClub FAQ on credit pulls confirms the multi‑bureau approach.

You can download a free TransUnion credit report right now from Annual Credit Report website.

1. Open the site and click 'Request your credit reports.'
2. Enter your name, address, Social Security number, and date of birth to verify identity.
3. When the portal asks which bureaus to pull, select only TransUnion.
4. View the PDF, save it, and note the FICO score displayed (if a score is included).
5. Print or screenshot the sections showing balances, payment history, and any errors - Lending Club will review these during the pre‑approval step.

Having the report before you start the application lets you catch inaccuracies early, which you'll later learn to dispute in the 'Denied? dispute TransUnion errors quick' section.

Lending Club triggers a hard pull on your TransUnion credit report the moment you submit an online application. That pull records a hard inquiry, which lenders and insurers can see for up to two years.

A hard inquiry typically nudges your FICO score down 5  -  10 points, though the exact dip depends on your overall profile. The inquiry appears on your credit report for 12 months, then drops off, but its presence can affect scoring models that weigh recent activity.

After the inquiry, you'll receive a decision within minutes to a few days; if approved, the hard pull stays in the background while you monitor your TransUnion report. Next, we'll explore whether Lending Club ever reaches for Experian instead.

Lending Club only pulls Experian in very limited scenarios; for the vast majority of applicants it checks the TransUnion credit report and uses the FICO score from that bureau.

An Experian pull occurs when (1) your TransUnion file is thin or missing, (2) you apply for a joint loan and the co‑borrower's primary bureau is Experian, or (3) Lending Club needs a secondary check after a soft inquiry; in those cases the inquiry is a hard pull on the Experian credit report, but it does not affect your TransUnion score.

Lending Club never initiates a pull from any bureau other than TransUnion.

• Joint loan requests trigger a TransUnion inquiry for every applicant; the platform does not bounce to Experian or Equifax.
• Thin‑file borrowers still receive a TransUnion pull; if the file is too sparse, the application is rejected, not rerouted to another bureau.
• A soft‑pull that falls below Lending Club's internal floor converts to a hard‑pull from TransUnion, never to a different credit report source.

If you have a thin file, you can still satisfy Lending Club's TransUnion requirement by generating a basic TransUnion credit profile before you apply.

• Obtain your free TransUnion credit report (see Annual Credit Report from TransUnion) to confirm the file is truly empty.
• Add a tradeline that reports to TransUnion: become an authorized user on a family member's card, open a low‑limit secured credit card, or enroll in a credit‑builder loan that reports monthly.
• Use a third‑party service that adds utility, rent, or phone payments to your TransUnion record; these soft‑reported accounts count as tradelines.
• Keep the new account active for at least 30 days so the FICO score appears on your TransUnion report.
• Run a soft pre‑qualification on Lending Club (no hard inquiry) to verify the newly created score meets the minimum threshold.

With even a single revolving or installment account showing on TransUnion, Lending Club can produce a FICO score and move forward with the application, clearing the way for joint‑loan checks in the next step.

When you apply for a joint loan, Lending Club pulls the TransUnion credit report for both borrowers. Each report generates a hard inquiry, and the two FICO scores are weighed together to set the loan's terms.

For example, applicant A has a 720 TransUnion FICO score and applicant B has a 640 score. Lending Club will retrieve both TransUnion reports, apply a combined risk model, and may offer a lower interest rate than if only the 640 score were considered.

If both applicants have thin files, Lending Club still requests a TransUnion report from each, using its 'TransUnion workaround' described earlier. This dual pull mirrors the process explained in the 'lending club pulls your transunion score' section and leads directly into the next topic on disputing errors if the joint application is denied, see the Lending Club joint loan FAQ.

If Lending Club denied you, start by disputing any TransUnion errors right away.

1. Pull your free TransUnion credit report (see the 'grab free TransUnion report before applying' section) within the 60‑day window at annualcreditreport.com.
2. Scan the report for mistakes - incorrect balances, outdated delinquencies, or duplicate accounts - and note the exact entries.
3. Open a dispute on TransUnion's website, upload supporting documents (bank statements, payment confirmations), and describe the error in a single clear sentence.
4. Monitor the case; TransUnion must complete its investigation within 30 days. Log in daily to see updates.
5. Once the error is corrected, download the updated report and email it to [email protected] to request a fresh review of your application.
6. If TransUnion upholds the original entry, request a reinvestigation or add a consumer statement to your file, then resend the new evidence to Lending Club's underwriting team.

Proceed to 'track TransUnion post‑lending club approval' for ongoing monitoring.

Log into your TransUnion account as soon as Lending Club approves the loan to start tracking changes.

From there you can:

• view the new hard inquiry and note its 2‑year removal date,
• check the updated credit report for the loan account line,
• set up real‑time alerts for any status changes, and
• compare your current FICO score with the pre‑approval snapshot (use the free TransUnion credit monitoring portal for quick access).

Keep an eye on the score for the first 30 days; payment history will begin affecting the FICO model after the first on‑time month, and any errors should be disputed immediately while the report is still fresh.