Last week, we began a 3-day series reviewing and ranking the credit reporting agencies on CreditBloggers.com. I wanted to give you my take on the "big three" and where I felt they ranked based on several criteria. Read Friday’s review of Experian online here. Read Monday’s review of TransUnion online here.
It occurred to me that I probably should say a few words about Innovis since they are technically a credit bureau. But, rather than muddy the water of my Equifax review I decided to profile them tomorrow. So, SPECIAL BONUS, tomorrow I’ll tell you what I think of Innovis.
But first let’s finish up with the third of the credit bureaus…Equifax.
Accessibility – These guys are the best of the bunch although that’s not saying much. They’ve got several call centers and they will talk to you if you are patient enough to work your way to a live person. It’s not easy but it’s also not Experian…er, I mean impossible. I give them 130 out of 170 possible points.
Price Points of Their Consumer Products – When you review Equifax’s consumer products you don’t have to worry about other web sites. All they have is Equifax.com. There’s value to not trying to overkill the consumer (or confuse them) with largely redundant products and services like the other two bureaus do.
Their price points are what I believe to be the best in a market full of overpriced products. Their monitoring service does monitor all three credit reports and costs $129.95 a year. That’s not cheap but it’s the cheapest of any of the bureau’s three-bureau monitoring services. And, they get big kudos for not trying to fool consumers into thinking they’re getting something for free in exchange for signing up for their highest dollar product, although they do have that with other lower priced products.
My conclusion on these monitoring services is that they are all way over priced. I know of one that does almost the exact same things as any of the bureau’s services and costs $79.95 per year. If the consumer will do enough searching they can get a better price from a non-bureau for a credit monitoring service that actually monitors all three of the bureau’s reports. That makes no sense…the credit bureaus own the data and control the price and access to it. How can a non-bureau get access to the data and then sell a tri-bureau monitoring service for $50 less than the cheapest equivalent offered by a bureau? And you guys are mad at Exxon?
Equifax does lose points because they keep raising the price of their online credit report and FICO score. That product (called ScorePower) started out at $12.95 and now it’s $15.50 but it hasn’t really changed so it’s not like Equifax is covering the cost of an improved service or a better deliverable. This is what’s called "price elasticity testing." Since they are the only publicly traded bureau they’re always looking for ways to improve the bottom line.
I give them a 125 out of 170 points.
Data Accuracy – Ditto to what I said in my two previous posts…I’ll give them 170 out of 170 points.
Marketing Practices – They score very well here although I don’t really like the "30 day free trial" they’ve got on a couple of their products.
Second, they only sell the real FICO score to consumers. Finally, someone’s doing it right. The other bureaus are simply being greedy and consumer unfriendly for selling anything other than the real deal.
I give them 150 points out of 170.
Perception in The Market – It’s very solid probably because they’re the oldest of the credit bureaus. If you ask any old school lender you’ll hear the same thing from them. They did business the right way. Good product, good service, fair prices. Anyone can come in and sell junk for next to nothing. They skipped that strategy. I’ll give them 170 out of 170 points.
Equifax’s score is 745. Not bad. That’s an "A-."
Ok, so this wasn’t scientific and opinions are going to vary. But these guys are all part of an industry that’s about as trusted and respected as the IRS. None of them are going to win awards for customer service because the only reason people want to talk to them is when they have something to complain about. Happy people don’t call the credit bureaus.
Having said that, there’s no reason to do business in such a way to give any validity to the "haters" in the audience. Cheating people out of their money, selling worthless products by making them seem like they’re authentic and making it impossible to talk to a human being about our credit reports (it IS our credit data, not theirs) doesn’t do anything for their reputations.
Tomorrow we’ll summarize and profile Innovis.
What do you think of Equifax, Experian and TransUnion? How would you grade each credit bureau? Are my scores fair? Please share your feedback in the comments section below.
John Ulzheimer Formerly with Equifax and Fair Isaac, John shares his unique insight of the inner workings of credit scoring models and the credit reporting industry on Credit.com News & Advice.
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It is very interesting how the three crdit reporting agencies differ so much. I think it highlights the frailty of the system. My question is – if a consumer has a score that is 100 points higher on Trans Union than it is on Experian – how does he/she take advntage? does there exist any dtabase or informal gathering of info as to which credit card and mortgage lenders look at which credit reporting agency for their info?
Equifax online credit report and purchase of FICO scores – are very dissatisfying, since inputing all your personal information and payment info – the only thing you get is the site saying – sorry service can not be delivered and then doesnt even say that the purchase did go through or not. Will the credit card be charged or not……lack of information. afterwards trying to solve the issue with Rep on the phone – was the most useless 1 hour i had spent – he was just trying to sell the product rather than really helping. so watch out if you want to have trouble – use equifax- it will give you a headache;
That’s a pretty in depth review. I always worked with Equifax. They seemed pretty in depth about everything. Would you like to write a quick review about your experiences with Equifax on my site? Feel free to follow my link if you want to do it.
Thanks
There needs to be a change. Anyone can check YOUR credit, whether you want them to or not, and thats a “Hard” hit that lowers your score. But if you wanna do something as easy as correct an address or employer, they act like it’s some kind of magic entity that they’d rather not tamper with. The bureaus have entirely too much control over the American economy, and they simply need guidelines and regulations.
Actually, not just ‘anyone’ can check your credit without your permission. In the Fair Credit Reporting Act, there is a section that talks about “permissible purpose” and legally, there are only 8 permissible purposes or reasons that give others access to your credit report without your consent. You can find more about permissible purpose under the FCRA here:
http://www.credit.com/answers/questions/58/Can-you-explain-the-following-terms:-%22unwanted-credit-checks-or-inquiries%22-and-%22permissible-purpose-under-the-Fair-Credit-Reporting-Act-%28FCRA%29%22%3F
I recently received a potential negative report in Equifax. So I signed up for their free 30 days trial period. The report is a fraudulent report from a third party entity. I placed a dispute against my negative report and waited. The 30 days trial period expired with no results. So I call their customer service to sign up for a service until I can clear this negative report off my credit report. The customer support rep spoke broken English and was extremely aggressive in selling an annual subscription. After an hour on the phone, I figure it would give me peace of mind to be able to monitor my credit. I signed up for the 3 in 1 reporting. Which is misleading because it does nothing more than send you and email about vague information concerning your credit from all three credit agencies. You would have to “pay extra” to see what it really is.
So it’s been over 40 days and my dispute has not been resolved. I called their dispute line and got a message saying that their office is closed. Their normal business hours are from 9 to 5 (M-F). I tried calling 8 times between 9:30 and 12:00 one Tuesday with no success. I tried again two days later to talk to another rep who spoke broken English. I explained to the rep that the Equifax dispute website provides an end date to my dispute and it’s 4 days past that date with no resolution. I requested additional information on my dispute and she told me, “It’s being investigated sir. Call next week.” The rep then continues to aggressively pushing me to sign up for additional features for this service that doesn’t seem to work in the first place for another additional cost. I had to refused four times.
It’s 42 days into the dispute and still no resolution. I went to my lawyer to draft up a letter for the third party entity that file the negative report against my credit. I’m hoping that would provide a better outcome. Needless to say that I am not too excited about Equifax, their business model and especially their customer service. I don’t agree with their business model of add-on features for add-on prices. Equifax is in the business of selling security and their advertising strategy of scaring people into buying a false sense such security – which in my opinion failed miserably by outsourcing to predatory sales reps. When you call a “customer service” dept you expect someone who can help you – the customer and not a sales rep pushing their quota or commission.
I am very disappointed Equifax customer. This is my way of venting.
I agree, Equifax is extreemly pushy with their annual subscription. Mainly because they auto-renew your subscription. Even when cancelling – I was only two days late, and they still charged me $10. What a scam.
The customer service is poor, the web interface klunky, and the web speed very slow loading pages. I wish there was a better option but again this seems to be a company that’s “too big to fail”.