Experian
 |
|
| Type | Public (LSE: EXPN) |
|---|---|
| Industry | Business Services |
| Founded | 1980 as Information Services Company |
| Headquarters | Dublin, Ireland |
| Key people | John Peace, Chairman Don Robert,[1] CEO Paul Brooks, CFO |
| Revenue | $3,873 million (2009)[2] |
| Operating income | $613 million (2009)[2] |
| Net income | $506 million (2009)[2] |
| Employees | 14,700 (2009) |
| Website | www.experiangroup.com |
Experian plc, formerly known as CCN Systems, is a global credit information group, with operations in 36 countries. The company employs 15,500 people with corporate headquarters in Dublin, Ireland and operational headquarters in Nottingham, England and Costa Mesa, California, U.S. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index.
Contents |
[edit] History
The Company was founded by John Peace in 1980 in Nottingham as CCN systems, an information services business owned by GUS plc.[3]
In 1996 GUS plc acquired the US credit reporting business Experian, formerly known as TRW Information Services, from Bain Capital and the Thomas H. Lee Partners. [4] GUS combined Experian with CCN. GUS retained the Experian name for its combined credit services subsidiary. [5]
In 2004 Experian acquired CheetahMail, a business founded in 1998 provided e-mail marketing software and services .[6]
In 2005 Experian became the first company to win the UK Business of the Year award twice, having also won in 2003 .[7]
In August 2005 Experian accepted a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) over charges that Experian had violated a previous settlement with the FTC. The FTC's allegations concerned customers who signed up for the "free credit report" at Experian's Consumerinfo.com site. The FTC alleged that ads for the "free credit report" did not adequately disclose that Experian would automatically enroll customers in Experian's $79.95 credit-monitoring program. [8] [9]
In 2005 Experian acquired PriceGrabber for $485 million.[10] Also in 2005, Experian acquired FootFall, an information provider to the retail and retail property industries:[11] FootFall is now a part of Experian's marketing solutions division.
In September 2006 Experian announced its purchase of Northern Credit Bureaus, located in Quebec, Canada.[12]
In October 2006 Experian was demerged from the British company GUS plc and listed on the London Stock Exchange.[13]
In April 2007 Experian acquired Hitwise, an internet monitor that collects data directly from information service provider networks.[14]
In May 2007 Experian acquired the French leading e-mail marketing company Emailing Solution.[15]
In May 2007 Experian expanded its coverage of the customer lifecycle by acquiring the Tallyman debt collection management software from UK-based Talgentra.[16]
In January 2008 Experian announced that it would cut over 200 jobs at its Nottingham office as it moved development work to India to reduce costs.[17]
Experian shut down its Canadian operations on 2009-04-18.[18]
[edit] Operations
Experian's principal lines of business are credit services, marketing solutions, decision analytics and interactive services. The company collects information on people, businesses, motor vehicles and insurance. It also collects 'lifestyle' data from on- and off-line surveys.
Its databases contain credit information[19] on 215 million people in the United States and 450 million vehicles, including title and registration data. It provides address information for more than 20 billion promotional mail items to more than 100 million households every year. Experian also provides credit reports on businesses. This business unit partnered with eCredit[20] (now Cortera) in June 2007.
Like the other major credit reporting bureaus, Experian is chiefly regulated in the United States by the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). The Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act of 2003, signed into law in 2003, amended the FCRA to require the credit reporting companies to provide consumers with one free copy of their credit report per 12 month period. Like its main competitors, TransUnion and Equifax, Experian markets credit reports directly to consumers. Experian heavily markets its for-profit credit reporting service, FreeCreditReport.com, and all three agencies have been criticized and even sued for selling credit reports that can be obtained at no cost.[21][22]
Experian US handles its credit disputes in its National Consumer Assistance Center (NCAC) in Allen, Texas. You may contact the NCAC once you have a copy of your personal credit report by calling the number that is located on the personal credit report itself. Experian opened a second NCAC in Santiago, Chile during the boreal summer of 2007. Many divisions of the Allen NCAC as well as several other business functions including software development have been relocated to the Chile location.
Experian provides regional data at nationalscoreindex.com which shows average credit scores by region and zipcode as well as various other measures of household debt. The site does not indicate if it uses a FICO based credit score, the new VantageScore, or some other scoring model.
The company's largest operation is Experian North America, a consumer credit reporting agency that is considered one of the three largest American credit agencies along with Equifax and TransUnion (there is also a 4th agency known as Innovis). As well as the US, Experian has operations in most European countries as well as Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, South Africa, China, India, Malaysia, Japan and Australia.
[edit] Senior management
| role | salary | bonus | total | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Don Robert[23] | Chief executive officer | $1,400,000 | $2,370,000 | $3,770,000 |
| Paul Brooks[24] | Chief financial officer | £460,000 | £779,000 | £1,239,000 |
[edit] Competition
[edit] Financial Education
Experian undertakes public financial education activities in several countries where it operates a consumer credit bureau, including the United States[25], the UK[26] and Brazil[27].
[edit] Customer Service complaints (United States)
800-493-1048 & 888-397-3742 have been disconnected at various times in 2010. Customers have had difficulty reaching an Experian representative.
[edit] Questionable business practices (United States)
As of: July 21, 2010 if you call: 800-493-1048 (the disconnected number previously listed on Experian's website), it tells you to push * for information on the number you are calling about. It then tells you to push "1" to receive a text message to your phone. If you hang up it sends you a text message WITHOUT your consent.
The text message says to: "reply Y now for info on the # you are trying to reach. Locator Svc. $9.99 / month Msg & Data rates my apply for lookups/month www.smsvw.com" 23333.
This appears to be an attempt to get consumers to sign up for a service for a fee.
As of: April 16, 2010 the Experian website lists several phone numbers that are either constantly busy, or disconnected. 888-397-3742 Yields a never-ending busy signal. If you try to go to their dispute resolution link and view your credit report there are disconnected Experian phone numbers that come up. If you try to dispute some incorrect addresses it will ask you to call this number 800-493-1048 which is disconnected.
Both this wikipedia article, the Experian website, and the recent mailed "investigation report" you receive in the snail mail will tell you "call the toll free-number" listed on the report. The only number listed is: 888-322-5583 which is only to sign up for a "VantageScore" service for $7.95 per month.
The Experian website simply says to go online to receive the number through their online form. Yet when you click on it, it gives you: 800-493-1048, which is a disconnected number.
A recent Google Search performed on: April 16, 2010 shows that the number is cached in Google's search history as having been on the experian.com website. Yet, the most current website does NOT show this number.
Some sites such as: gethuman.com tell you how to bypass the old # and get a person.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Experianplc.com
- ^ a b c Annual Report 2009
- ^ Growing information arm shows value of Experian
- ^ Large British Retailer to buy US credit data company
- ^ Experian plc - History Retrieved on 2010-07-15
- ^ Experian buys CheetahMail
- ^ [1]
- ^ "Consumerinfo.com Settles FTC Charges". Federal Trade Commission. http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2007/02/cic.shtm. Retrieved 2010-07-15.
- ^ Quotation marks around "free credit report" are part of FTC press release
- ^ Forbes
- ^ FootFall acquisition press release Retrieved on 2008-05-24
- ^ Experian expands operations in Canada
- ^ "London Stock Exchange company profile". London Stock Exchange. http://www.londonstockexchange.com/exchange/prices-and-news/stocks/summary/company-summary.html?fourWayKey=GB00B19NLV48JEGBXSET1. Retrieved 2009-07-17.
- ^ Hitwise acquisition press release. Retrieved on 2008-03-01.
- ^ Experian buys France's Emailing Solution
- ^ Experian Acquires Tallyman Collections Software. Retrieved on 2009-01-23
- ^ Experian to cut 200 jobs Computer Weekly. Retrieved March 3, 2008.
- ^ Experian Canada. Retrieved on 2009-03-25
- ^ Experian holds data on 450m consumers and 30m businesses worldwide
- ^ Experian.com, eCredit
- ^ Sullivan, Bob (2005-05-10). "Many free credit reports still aren't free". MSNBC.com (MSNBC). http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7803368/. Retrieved 2006-10-29.
- ^ "Experian, Consumerinfo.com Named In Class Action Suit". ConsumerAffairs.com. http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/experian_class_action.html. Retrieved 2006-10-29.
- ^ "Don Robert: Executive Profile & Biography". BusinessWeek. McGraw-Hill. http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/people/person.asp?personId=1246449&capId=8122148. Retrieved 2009-09-17.
- ^ "Paul Brooks: Executive Profile & Biography". BusinessWeek. McGraw-Hill. http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/people/person.asp?personId=1425531&capId=8122148. Retrieved 2009-09-17.
- ^ [2]
- ^ [3]
- ^ [4]
[edit] External links
- Experiangroup.com, Homepage
- Experian.com, Official US Website
- Experian.co.uk, Official UK Website
- Experian.com.my, Official Malaysia Website
- Experian.co.jp, Official Japanese Website
- Nationalscoreindex.com, National Score Index
