Are their 7-year and 3-year versions of Equifax and Transunion credit reports?

My loan officer told me that the credit report he is able to pull is a 7-year average and that the Equifax and Transition reports I can access are "consumer" versions based on a 3-year average. Is that true? What would be the point of me having access to a different report than potential lenders? Monitoring my report is how I know when to apply for credit. If it is faulty information, then it is of no real practical use to me.

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  • jacobs
    jacobs SuperUser, Mac Beta Beta
    edited September 2019
    @bchaney777 Since your question seems a general one about credit reports, and not Quicken specific, you may want to do some Googling and/or post on some other websites devoted to credit issues.

    My understanding is that different things come off credit reports after different amounts of time; negative things like late payments come off after 7 years and bankruptcies after 10 years. Positive things, like payments on time remain for as long as the account is open and the credit card company reports it. Closed accounts (and the reason for closing) can remain on the report up to 10 years. 

    Consumers are entitled to copies of their credit reports which include all this information. I'm not sure where this idea of a limited three-year history comes from. Perhaps that refers to your average monthly balance, which one of the agencies (Experian, I think) shows for the past 36 months. But the payment history and history of each account go back much further than 36 months, and events which could adversely affect your credit score that go back farther than three months are noted in the credit reports. 
    Quicken Mac Subscription • Quicken user since 1993
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