Schulman presented himself in the role of an analyst asking whether it makes sense for Equifax to exist at all.
Equifax is among the three largest consumer credit reporting agencies in the world the other two being Experian and Trans Union. This bureau has credit records of nearly every adult American, which are inclusive of your payment records, current balance, credit checks, and others. It is used in computing your credit score, which is a measure of the creditworthiness of the borrower in the eyes of the lending institutions. However, does it mean that consumers should or would want to have the Equifax credit report and score? Always, it can be good or bad depending on the aspect that one looks at it from.
Pros
Credit evaluation is facilitated by it. Therefore, the primary purpose of maintaining an Equifax account and filing for a credit report is to facilitate credit-related transactions, such as loan applications, credit cards, and apartment leasing, among other services that require credit checks. Lenders will normally take a copy of your credit report from one or many of the credit referencing agencies available to check on your reliability and credit history. The transactions mentioned above are aided by the fact that the customer has a prior credit history with Equifax. That means you get a green light, and possibly a lower rate with your personal loan or credit card application.
It is important to point out that you can, and indeed, should, monitor your credit. Having an account and Equifax credit report also helps to monitor credit health in general since the credit report is issued. If there is something wrong, you can look for it on the credit report and correct it. However, you get to monitor significant credit factors such as balance in your accounts, credit history, and other alterations on your credit report. This grants you the authority to monitor for fraudulent acts or identity theft. And you can immediately respond to any legitimate mistakes that might affect your score and creditworthiness for the loan.
It provides credit reports and credit monitoring. Equifax offers a subscription-based service known as Equifax Complete which is a more enhanced version of the service that gives you real-time updates on your credit report and score provided by Equifax. This service entails a notification of any significant change to the report together with factors affecting the score. They also provide you with your complete credit report which makes credit monitoring easy on your end. Thus, for Equifax credit file users, there is a possibility to notice potential problems at an earlier stage by monitoring credit files more frequently. And then you have the tools to learn why your score looks like that – whether this is good or bad.
Cons
Fees that are charged for viewing and the ability to monitor the credit file. Although one can obtain the Equifax credit report for free, it is only a limited version; full and detailed Equifax credit reports are usually available through paid services and people usually visit this site daily. Specialized credit monitoring services, of course, cost money and are either billed monthly or annually. Hence, the nature of Equifax and the process of keeping your account and credit information current implies that you have to pay more for the privilege of the service on more than one occasion. Those fees can build up over time, and if they are high, may end up negating the value of the Equifax credit monitoring service.
Reporting delays and errors. Similar to other credit bureaus, Equifax also has been involved in some delays and some discrepancies concerning the matching of credit information reported to it with the credit files of consumers. However, your Equifax credit report as a complete one may not portray all the correct information or may even miss the recent credit activities or credit changes. Although you can conspicuously watch your Equifax file, it could still contain some unfinished or mistaken details that could lead to unfair credit scoring. It can be disadvantageous to rely on Equifax for credit-related decisions hence the need to find an alternative.
Proprietary data and information security and breach and leakage risks. Equifax in the year 2017 faced one of the biggest and most disastrous data breaches it could ever face. More than 147 million Americans’ social security numbers have been implicated in the data breach. However, there is still much doubt about whether Equifax has done enough to safeguard its consumer data since the breach. The problem is that this personal information is still at risk because you have an Equifax account; something that puts you at risk of fraud, theft, or other kinds of identity crimes that harm your credit and your financial status. Indeed, Equifax credit reports themselves pose inherent security risks many consumers would like to keep far from.
Alternatives
Credit reports from the official site of the United States Annual Credit Report. According to federal law, you are entitled to receive a free credit report each year from each of the major bureaus from AnnualCreditReport. com. Though it does not reveal the full picture of your credit profile or report or your score, this basic free report offers a summary of your Equifax credit history the accounts with open access, and the number of inquiries. Visiting it once per year will help you control what is being reported to you without having to pay all the fees of using Equifax.
Non-credit data alternatives. In the present world, most service providers have made use of noncredit data for things such as loan assessment and insurance fare quotes. Such types of alternative data are things like your capacity to pay rent on time, your capacity to pay your utility bills promptly, and your ability to pay your telecom bills in good time. Thus, the positive references established in these areas could be used as evidence of your creditworthiness, thus implying no need to use credit reports and Equifax tracking.
Overall, deciding whether it is profitable to spend time and money on using Equifax credit services and monitoring is possible only in each case. If you are very credit active, that is if you do a lot of applying for major loans and credit lines then it is probably useful to be able to keep a close eye on the Equifax credit data you submitted. People who do not use credit often or use credit sparingly may be content with the free Equifax report available online that can be reviewed for free without paying for a subscription every month. As such, consider your situation and credit profile and weigh the benefits for yourself to determine if fuller Equifax credit account access and monitoring capability is worth it to you.
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