How Does Equifax Make Money?

Occasionally, we all need a credit report, whether it’s for a mortgage application, securing a loan from a bank, setting up utilities, job applications, or entrepreneurial projects. A trustworthy credit report is necessary in these scenarios. However, obtaining your credit report or checking your credit score isn’t a solo process, and you can’t just do it alone. To access an authentic credit report detailing your complete financial payment history, you require the services of credit agencies/ credit bureaus.

Among these agencies, Equifax is one of the three major credit bureaus besides Experian and TransUnion. Today, our target is to reveal all the aspects of Equifax, exploring its services, financial powers, and how does Equifax make money?” This exploration will unveil Equifax’s secret income generation methods and provide a clear picture of “How does Equifax make money?”

Who Owns Equifax?

Equifax is a publicly traded company listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), operating globally as a successful data, analytics, and consumer credit reporting agency. Its ticker symbol is EFX, and this company was established in the United States in 1899. Equifax has a vast and well-renowned name as a credit reporting agency; however, it does not have a single owner. This company is owned by collective shareholders, including various individuals, institutional investors, and mutual funds.

Equifax Services

To simplify Equifax’s services and functions, this company collects and manages financial data related to consumers’ credit histories. Their authenticity cannot be challenged and is mostly accurate. This strong credibility helps Equifax make money by providing tailored solutions to diverse problems. It specializes in providing services at the micro ( personal ) level and macro ( business level).

While giving services on a personal level, Equifax functions on a simple motto, ” Your Credit, your identity”. They help customers protect themself from ID theft and provide better financial stability. Equifax gives three packages for personal services, and they are as follows:

Equifax Complete

This package costs $9.95 per month with no partial refund option. As its name dictates ” personal,” so is for only one person; this package involves:

• Equifax credit monitoring & ID theft protection features.
• Identity restoration services
• Equifax credit report lock2

This service of Equifax is best suited for individuals looking for regular and reliable financial analyses.

Equifax Complete™ Premier

These types of packages mainly contribute to Equifax’s overall income as per person costs $19.95/ month. This personal package emphasizes the following features:

• Up to $1MM in ID theft insurance
• 3-bureau credit features
• All features of Equifax Complete
• Extra ID theft protection features

Family Plan

Equifax tailors its services to its consumers’ needs, making it the most profitable platform. The family plan package is one of the examples of Equifax’s remarkable services. This package embosses the below-mentioned feature within:

• Equifax credit monitoring for four kids
• Credit and ID theft protection features for the family
• All components of Premier for two adults

Equifax assists its users in gaining their financial goals while making money through these profitable packages.

How Does Equifax Make Money?

Similar to every other business, Equifax makes money by providing value and giving solutions to its consumers. Equifax makes money by providing credit-related services to consumers, such as common folk, businesses, and financial institutions. We have discussed below in detail how Equifax makes money:

Credit Reports

Equifax’s primary source of income is through charging fees from its users. What better way to make money than to charge a reasonable price for remarkable services?

Equifax makes money and earns revenue through charging a fee from lenders and individuals seeking credit reports. The lenders require attaining the credit report of loan applicants, so they rush to gather that information from Equifax. In return, the lender pays a fee to Equifax for this service. The same goes for loan applicants or individuals desirous to obtain credit reports.

Analytics Services

Equifax’s principal asset is data, and industries desperately need to make data-driven decisions. Equifax makes money by providing a treasure of data and analytics services to businesses looking for insights into customer behaviors.

You might be wondering about the impact of this database on businesses. Let’s shed some light on this matter. Equifax database helps firms in:

• Judging consumer behavior
• Accessing market trends
• Manage risk
• Assess the creditworthiness of individuals
• Making informed lending and marketing decisions

These factors determine the downfall and growth of every business. So technically, Equifax is doing a massive favor to multiple industries by giving them this filtered information with a clear background screening service. Although, businesses are required to pay substantial fees for access to this data-driven analytics service. After all, nothing is free in this world!

Selling Consumer Data

In the game of targeted marketing, customer segmentation, and specific demographics, Equifax is the master player.

The core income stream of this forum is selling data to brands, businesses, financial institutes, and firms. Equifax makes money through collecting, analyzing, and selling consumer credit-related data to businesses. Equifax’s vast database optimizes the marketing campaigns of these businesses.

Identity Protection

Some matters beyond credit scores require more than just FICO credit-scoring models or VantageScore. In this era of identity theft and fraud, industries need platforms like Equifax to control this online flood of customer scams. Due to this need, Equifax’s identity verification services are in high demand.

Equifax fixes these scam issues and provides the related businesses with the customer’s error-free identification report. Many online platforms rely on Equifax customer verification. Hence, this becomes a smooth source of income for Equifax.

Marketing Solutions

Equifax’s data is used for targeted marketing efforts. Companies looking to reach specific demographics or customer segments pay to access Equifax’s data to optimize their marketing campaigns.

Importance of Equifax Credit Report

This forum is responsible and trusted to provide a pinpointed accurate, and related customer financial history. For example, if a person needs to apply for a loan, they must be eligible and trustworthy to attain the loan. Can you guess who decides the credibility of that user for a loan? Equifax does; it is associated with the loan applicants and the lenders.

This company is required to have access to all the financial data of the applicant, and based on that given information, Equifax generated the applicant’s credit report along with their credit scores. Equifax is the superintendent of providing these credit reports to potential lenders and helping them evaluate the creditworthiness of loan applicants.

Equifax Competitors

FinTech industry got a lot of competition, and Equifax faces the same effects. The platforms in FinTech companies compete based on different categories. However, most competitors give a hard time to Equifax based on authority score, website visits, and bounce rates.

Here is the list of equifax.com competitors in August 2023:

Equifax’s prominent and leading competitors are Simple, Checkbook, QuoteMedia, FIS Global, Quorum Analytics, and Finicity. These competitors primarily compete based on domains, market shares, and digital presence. Equifax is best at what it provides, yet not at the top of the pyramid.

Final Verdict – How Does Equifax Make Money?

To sum up, Equifax makes money through credit reporting, data analytics, identity verification, and marketing solutions. Equifax has laid a strong foundation among the credit bureaus by fixing major business problems such as consumer identity verification, combating fraud, excluding scams, and providing a robust and accurate database. Equifax’s positive and progressive impact on the financial sector and consumers is hard to miss.

noor

Noor Al Ain is working in the Digital business consulting industry as a business analyst. She is an expert at providing innovative and impactful solutions for business problems. Most of her articles about business and technology issues have been published in most reputable medias.