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Equifax Inc. is a consumer credit reporting agency in the United States,
considered one of the three largest American credit agencies along with Experian
and TransUnion. Founded in 1899, Equifax is the oldest of the three agencies and
gathers and maintains information on over 400 million credit holders worldwide.
Based in Atlanta, Georgia, Equifax is a global service provider with US $1.5
billion in annual revenue and 7,000+ employees in 14 countries. Equifax is
listed on the NYSE.
Equifax was founded as Retail Credit Company in 1899. The company grew quickly
and by 1920 had offices throughout the US and Canada. By the 1960s, Retail
Credit Company was one of the nation's largest credit bureaus, holding files on
millions of American and Canadian citizens.
Retail Credit Company's extensive information
holdings, and its willingness to sell them to anyone, attracted criticism of the
company in the 1960s and 1970s. These included that it collected "...facts,
statistics, inaccuracies and rumors… about virtually every phase of a person's
life; his marital troubles, jobs, school history, childhood, sex life, and
political activities." The company was also alleged to reward its employees for
collecting negative information on consumers.1
As a result, when the company moved to computerize its records, which would lead
to much wider availability of the personal information it held, the US Congress
held hearings in 1970. These led to the enactment of the Fair Credit Reporting
Act in the same year which gave consumers rights regarding information stored
about them in corporate databanks. It is alleged that the hearings prompted the
Retail Credit Company to change its name to Equifax in 1975 to improve its
image.1
The company has been fined by the Federal Trade Commission on two occasions for
violating the Fair Credit Reporting Act. In 2000, Equifax along with Experian
and Trans Union were fined US$2.5 million for blocking and delaying phone calls
from consumers trying to get information about their credit. In 2003, the FTC
took Equifax to court for the same reason and settled its lawsuit with the
company for a fine of US$250,000. 2 3
For most of its existence, Equifax has operated primarily in the
business-to-business sector, selling consumer credit reports and related
analytics to businesses in a range of industries. Business customers include
retailers, insurance firms, healthcare providers, utilities, government
agencies, as well as banks and other financial institutions.
Equifax sells businesses credit reports, analytics, demographic data, and
software. Credit reports provide detailed information on the personal credit and
payment history of individuals, indicating how they have honored financial
obligations such as paying bills or repaying a loan. Businesses then use this
information to decide what sort of products or services to offer their
customers, and on what terms.
Beginning in 1999, Equifax began offering products that help people monitor
their credit history, including alerting consumers to the possibility of their
being a victim of credit fraud or identity theft. Equifax, and other credit
monitoring agencies are required by law to provide US citizens with one free
credit file disclosure every 12 months, which may be requested on-line at
Annualcreditreport.com.
Equifax Credit Information Services, Inc
P.O. Box 740241
Atlanta, GA 30374
1 (800) 685-1111
http://www.equifax.com/home/en_us
1. “Separating Equifax from fiction”, Wired, September 1995
2. Equifax Fined $250,000 Fine By FTC, NBC 10, 3 August 2003
3. Equifax to Pay $250,000 to Settle Charges". ConsumerAffairs.com. 2003-07-30 |
