Applying for loans, credit cards, insurance, apartment rental, a job, or even a mobile phone many others requires your credit report. This is why it is advisable sometimes to review the credit report data to prevent running into such a situation. One of the three credit bureaus available to Americans providing credit scores and credit reports is Equifax. Equifax, Experian, and Trans Union comprise the other two. Among the better websites to see your credit score is Equifax. Equifax offers the following goods; below is a synopsis of them along with some of the primary advantages and disadvantages of utilizing this website for credit check needs.
What Equifax Offers
Equifax provides a few options for accessing your credit report and score:
- Equifax Credit Report – This company also provides you with your free annual credit report either through phone or online at www.annualcreditreport.com. This means that you are given a chance to analyze your whole report generated by Equifax for free.
- Equifax Credit Score – Credit reports from Equifax come with this score and you can also buy it for a fee. This is the score itself, as well as the details of the factors that influence this score.
- Equifax Credit Monitoring – Join the Equifax community and subscribe for Equifax credit monitoring, which provides an Equifax credit report activity update and notifications of certain changes for a monthly or an annual fee.
Some key things that Equifax monitors and provides notifications for include:
- New credit inquiries
- Accounts that you have created in the fiscal year
- Revision in balances of amounts on the prior account
- Alteration of aspects such as the user’s address.
- They contain negative information such as late payments, defaults, or records of legal actions taken against an individual.
Equifax, for its part, offers many plans that include access to your Equifax credit score and the ability to monitor your full Equifax credit report at any time.
Pros of Using Equifax
There are a few advantages to relying on Equifax for checking your credit:
- Experience – Equifax has more than a century of record of providing credit information services which serves as an added advantage. Every credit loan provider will contribute information to Equifax.
- Products – Equifax provides useful credit simulators which are designed to demonstrate how credit decisions can affect credit ratings.
- Information – Equifax’s website is filled with information detailing the credit reports, scores, and monitoring services that are provided to consumers. This can offer added value that is more than a number on a report or a score.
- Alerts – The various Equifax credit monitoring packages come with prompt notifications to ensure that you monitor your credit round the clock while not having to check continually.
- The utilization of mobile devices - Equifax even provides a service to check the credit on a mobile terminal using iPhones and Androids.
- Specific services – Equifax also provides business credit reports for specific industries; this is different from personal credit history and may also be of great benefit to small business owners.
Cons to Consider
While Equifax can provide useful credit information, there are also a few downsides to weigh:
- Prior identity thefts – possibly the biggest fear is an incident where one’s identity gets stolen again. Equifax is a famous company that had a data breach in 2017, in which the personal data of 142 million people were compromised.
- Lack of full credit information – Although this company is one of the largest credit reporting agencies, Equifax does not have credit data with all the lenders. This may be due to some credit accounts being reported only to Experian and TransUnion and may not be included in the reports.
- Billing problems – Some of the problems are related to billing problems whereby Equifax charges its consumers the wrong amount or charges them a lot of money for their products. They have also suffered in managing the customer service team, especially in handling billing issues.
- Disparities in marketing – Equifax in the past used credit product offers that enticed consumers into believing that they were getting free credit reports only to find that they were being signed up for paid subscriptions.
Alternatives to Equifax
If you have concerns with relying on Equifax, you do have alternatives:
- The other two credit reporting agencies namely, Experian and TransUnion also offer credit reports and credit scores to the public. They might provide some other information than what was provided by Equifax.
- Some of the large banking and credit card companies also offer your credit score for free along with tools that could explain to you what affects your number.
- Free reports especially are provided through www.annualcreditreport.com where consumers have an opportunity to get one report from each bureau within one year as provided for by the federal law.
All in all, analyzing the details, it is possible to note that Equifax at its best serves as
Due to the above reasons, Equifax continues to maintain its position among the three most significant sources of information lenders rely on to make credit decisions. It also means that you should occasionally review the report so that you are aware of your credit situation. It is, however, important to be extra careful about free-to-charge options as there may be free ones that can do the trick. Only use this free service once a year, since getting an Equifax report more often will not be useful.
A word of caution when signing up for subscription services from Equifax – remember that the charges are likely to be higher compared to the features offered, so think carefully before making the decision depending on your financial circumstances. On the other hand, it might be sufficient to already have score access from your bank for free.
Generally, for most consumers, Equifax is best used occasionally or once a year as the risks and the benefits of the service provided by the company are balanced. It is important to note that credit reporting has been around for a long time, which means credit reports stay a valuable source of insight into the data used by banks, lenders, and property managers as they assess your credit-worthiness for today, tomorrow, next week, next month or next year about future products and services.
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