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Does checking my credit report hurt my credit score? How can I improve my credit score? What’s the difference between a credit score and a credit report? These are a few of the questions I most often hear about credit, and the answers to these fundamental questions are essential to financial well-being. Understanding credit scores and the factors that influence overall credit health is important any time, but this is especially true in our current environment. As part of our ongoing commitment to consumer education on the road to recovery, I recently had the pleasure of partnering with Akbar Gbajabiamila, host of American Ninja Warrior, former football pro and financial fitness expert, for an Instagram Live event. Akbar is passionate about helping people develop a financial game plan and he understands having a good credit history is a key component of good financial health. During the Instagram Live event, I answered questions from Akbar’s fans and shared ways to improve your credit score through tools like Experian Boost. In case you missed it, you can watch the video recap on Akbar’s Instagram account (@akbar_gbaja) or at the following link: https://www.instagram.com/tv/CLpbdDJlaQ6/   View this post on Instagram   A post shared by 🇳🇬Akbar Gbajabiamila🇺🇸 (@akbar_gbaja) A positive credit history can be the gatekeeper to many of the things we all want in life, and we’re committed to helping facilitate fair and affordable access to credit for all consumers, including those in marginalized communities. This is one of the many reasons I’m passionate about my role at Experian. Educating consumers about credit is an important part of getting the economy as a whole humming again and helping those most in need. If you have additional questions about credit, feel free to check out the free resources below. Additional credit education resources and tools Join Experian’s weekly#CreditChat hosted by @Experian on Twitter with financial experts every Wednesday at 3 p.m. Eastern time. Visit the Ask Experian blog for answers to common questions, advice and education about credit. Add positive telecom, utility and streaming service payments to your Experian credit report for an opportunity to improve your credit scores by visiting experian.com/boost. You can request a free copy of your credit report from each of the three credit bureaus once a week through April 20, 2022 by visiting annualcreditreport.com For additional resources, visit https://www.experian.com/consumereducationor experian.com/coronavirus.  

We recognize that COVID-19 has challenged Americans across the country, and nearly a year later, people are still struggling to recover. Among the more pressing issues for people has been navigating the financial landscape and hardships brought on by illness and high unemployment rates. At Experian, we empathize with consumers and are committed to helping them manage their financial lives. As part of this commitment, Experian, along with the other U.S. credit reporting agencies, is continuing to offer free weekly credit reports to all Americans for an additional year via AnnualCreditReport.com. At Experian, we view ourselves as the consumers’ bureau, and aim to help people  better position themselves as they recover from COVID-related hardships. We’re proud of our ongoing efforts to assist consumers, particularly during these difficult times. Financial and credit information is constantly updated, and we believe providing consumers with increased access to their credit reports will help them improve their financial health, monitor for lender updates and ensure there is no fraudulent or unfamiliar activity on their credit profiles. We are committed to helping facilitate access to fair and affordable access to credit for all consumers. Our goal is not only to help consumers build credit, but also to effectively manage it. Beyond our continued offering of free credit reports, consumers can access resources and educational materials to help learn about credit and other important personal finance topics. In fact, we recently launched our United for Financial Health project to empower vulnerable populations to improve their financial health through education and action. We’re continually exploring new ways to use our data and resources to empower consumers and to improve their financial health and recover from COVID-19; extending access to free weekly credit reports is just another step in that process.

A year ago, we shifted our business to remote working as the global pandemic took hold. Like the rest of the world, we had no idea how long we’d be away, but we didn’t really imagine we’d still be operating our business with a remote workforce a year later. What a year it has been. It is incredible to look back and reflect on how our lives have changed, how we were able to adapt to this new way of living and working, and really importantly, how we were able to keep innovating to help communities and businesses during this difficult time. We have captured highlights of our work and efforts in our North America annual diversity and inclusion report, 2020 Power of YOU. At Experian, the safety and well-being of our colleagues has consistently been a top priority. As such, we have been able to focus on serving consumers and clients when and where they need help the most. As a company, we expanded our benefits to take care of our employees. Coworkers jumped in to take care of each other. Our employee resource group dedicated to mental health and caregiving partnered with colleagues to create a dynamic set of tools and guides tackling different topics every week through webinars, articles and personal, candid videos from leaders. We supported each other during times of social unrest. We celebrated progress in growing our business. We logged 18,000 volunteer hours to increase financial inclusion, support frontline healthcare workers, honor active duty military and veterans, and fight hunger in underprivileged communities. We leveraged our diversity of perspectives, backgrounds and experiences to help vulnerable populations in crisis from COVID-19, including launching our United for Financial Health program. We remain steadfast and committed to equity for all. We are proud to start the new year with this wonderful look back at last year, propelling us forward to more opportunities to innovate and serve. We invite you to check out the 2020 Power of YOU Report here.