An agency that collects and sells information about the creditworthiness of individuals. Rather than making decisions on whether to extend credit, such an agency collects information that it considers relevant to a person's credit habits and history, and uses it to assign a credit score to indicate how creditworthy a person is. Prospective creditors purchase credit reports from credit bureaus about specific individuals, and then they use this information to decide how much credit, if any, to extend to the individual. These agencies are also referred to as credit bureaus.