Credit Monitoring By Equifax 3-1 Monitoring
System
Author: Lisa Carey
Equifax Inc. is one of the top three consumer credit reporting
agencies, including Experian and TransUnion. Founded in 1899 as
Retail Credit Company, by 1920 it had offices in the United
States and Canada, and by the 1960's protected millions of
credit histories. It changed it's name from Retail Credit
Company to Equifax in 1975 and is traded on the New York Stock
Exchange as EFX. It is a Standard and Poors (S&P) 500 company.
The company corporate headquarters is in Atlanta, Georgia but it
has over 4000 employees in 13 countries and reports $1.4 billion
in revenue.
Equifax has had its share of criticism and has been fined by
the Federal Trade Commission twice for violations of the Fair
Credit Reporting Act. In the years prior to the Fair Credit
Reporting Act, the criticism involved the extensive and invasive
nature of the information that Equifax was gathering about
consumers. At this point it was still called Retail Credit
Company, and it gathered and sold information, whether true or
rumor regarding private information such as marital status,
employment history, sex life and political affiliation.
Additional criticism occurred because of allegations that they
were not only encouraging their employees to obtain this
information by any means necessary, but they were also willing
to sell it to anyone willing to pay.
This complaints and the advent of computerized records led to a
hearing by the U.S. Congress on the subject of consumer
information: what can be obtained and who it can be provided to.
As a result the Fair US Credit Reporting Act was enacted in an
effort to protect consumers from unlawful gathering of private
and inappropriate information, as well as providing rules for
the release of this information.
Equifax has been fined twice by the Federal Trade Commission
for violations of the Fair Credit Reporting Act. The first
instance involved all three major credit reporting companies
(Equifax,Experian, and Transunion) for an amount of $2.5 million
dollars for charges that they were not providing customer
service during phone call inquiries for information and copies
of a consumer's credit report. Apparently they did not learn
their lesson as Equifax was again fined the sum of $250,000 for
identical infractions of the Fair Credit Reporting Act.
Recently Equifax introduced a 3-1 Monitoring System. For $12.95
a month, consumers will receive monitoring of their credit
report for all three major credit agencies of Equifax, Experian
and TransUnion; automated and customized alert notification of
changes to any of these three credit agency reports; unlimited
access to their Equifax Credit Report; $20,000 Identity Theft
Insurance policy with no deductible although certain limitations
and exclusions apply and a customer service center 24 hours a
day, 7 days a week.
Several different additional services, like Score Power, are
also available and vary in type and cost from $8.95-$39.95.
ScorePower is one such service which provides access to your
FICO or "credit" score (not all reports provide your score, just
a listing of creditors and financial information); and
explanation of that your score means, how credit lenders see
your credit information; a comparison of your score and the
ability to use the Equifax online dispute feature free to
dispute errors on your credit report. An "Interactive Score
Simulator" is also available allowing you to virtually determine
how your future financial decisions (buy a house, car or add a
credit card) may affect your credit score.
Some consumers may feel that the price of $12.95 a month
($155.40/year)
is not a good value for the money and services offered.
Consumers should take into consideration that one free three
agency credit report is available to them each year, however
additional reports may cost approximately $10.00 each. The
Equifax service does offer some advantages such as
customization, wireless alerts, identity theft insurance and
convenience.
About The Author: Lisa Carey is a contributing author for
http://www.IdentityTheftSecret
Identity theft protection, software, and monitoring your credit,
as well as learn more about the secrets used by identity thieves
at http://www.IdentityTheftSecret
