Study reveals consumers paying credit cards over mortgages. What this really means.

As soon as TransUnion released its research, news headlines announcing the results multiplied like foreclosures in Detroit. The first headline I saw read: “Consumers Paying Credit Card Over Mortgage”.  I was attracted to the story not because it was shocking, but because it confirmed what I already knew would happen.  Let me explain.  Imagine the following predicament:

How to change your name with the credit bureaus after marriage

Finding out how to change your name after marriage can be a difficult and tedious task, especially when it comes to making sure that the three major credit bureaus, Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion, have current information.  If you have to change your name, my wife’s recent experience will help you avoid increased agony. 

Experian is not a U.S. company and why you should care

Last week, I ate lunch with a financial expert whose company provides consumers with information on how to maintain good credit.  He’s quite a knowledgeable guy and keeps up, for the most part, with the latest financial news and government regulation, as they relate to consumer credit.  So, when I brought to his attention that Experian, one of the three major credit reporting bureaus, is not a U.S. company, he was shocked.  From that point, our conversation focused on Experian. 

Before I explain how Experian’s foreign status can possibly affect consumers in the U.S., I first must give a little background information on the company.  And by the way, all the information I am sharing is in the company’s annual report or publicly available. 

Experian is a European company with headquarters in Dublin, Ireland.  It also has offices in London, Nottingham, and Costa Mesa, California U.S.A.  From a global perspective, Experian is much more powerful than Equifax, the most relevant credit bureau in the U.S.  To give you a better perspective of how large Experian is compared to Equifax, let’s compare the two companies’ market capitalization, a measure by which we can classify a company’s size or how much it is worth.  Experian’s market capitalization is about $4.5 billion and Equifax’s is $2.8 billion.