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The recent wildfires in Los Angeles are now among the most destructive recorded in California’s history. Thousands of structures have been damaged or destroyed, and many families are facing the heartbreaking loss of their homes, businesses and personal belongings. The fires have also tragically claimed lives and caused significant injuries.  In the wake of such devastation, the immediate priority for everyone is, of course, ensuring the safety and well-being of themselves and their loved ones.   As communities come together to navigate this challenging time, we are committed to being a resource to consumers. Our hope is to help those impacted by the fires preempt or prevent potential impacts to their financial health and identity where possible.   If you or someone you know has been impacted by the Los Angeles fires, here are some key points to keep in mind.   1. Safeguard Your Identity  Natural disasters can unfortunately create opportunities for identity theft. Important documents containing personal information may be lost or scattered. According to the Federal Trade Commission, instances of identity theft have nearly tripled over the last decade and scammers often exploit chaotic situations and vulnerable consumers.   Be Wary of Scammers: Sadly, following natural disasters, opportunistic fraudsters often deploy schemes tied to charity and donations, insurance, new financing, construction or clean up, and more. These perpetrators may lift and deploy tactics that were successful following natural disasters in other areas and deploy them to target those impacted by the LA wildfires. Stay vigilant against fraudsters who may try to steal your personal information or money through disaster-related schemes or offers that sound too good to be true.  Use Free Credit Monitoring and Fraud Alerts: Take advantage of these services to keep an eye on your credit activity. If you notice anything suspicious, report it immediately to your bank or financial institution.  Consider Freezing Your Credit: If your personal information has been compromised, freezing your credit with the three major credit reporting agencies can prevent new fraudulent credit applications. You can freeze your credit for free with Experian by clicking here or enrolling in its free app on your mobile device.   2. Contact Your Lenders  In times of crisis, many financial institutions are willing to work with affected consumers. If you’re worried about paying your bills on time due to the fires, reach out to your mortgage, auto loan, and credit card companies as soon as possible.  Your lenders can report accounts as deferred or in forbearance if you live in an area impacted by the fires. This means no late payments will be reported, allowing you to focus on immediate concerns. However, interest might continue to accrue on the balance, so be sure to understand the terms of any agreement.  3. Use Your Credit Report as a Financial Tool  Tracking down contact information for each of your lenders can be overwhelming. Your credit report, which you can access for free at annualcreditreport.com or via the Experian website or its free app on your mobile device, can be a helpful starting point.  While, understandably, protecting your credit history or identity may not be your immediate concern, taking a proactive approach could help prevent any or further damage to your financial health at a time when you need access to credit the most.  For more tools and resources to protect your credit standing and financial health, please visit Ask Experian.  

Experian is celebrating the one-year anniversary of The Legacy League Game Show™, a dynamic and interactive event that has revolutionized financial literacy education for students at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs). This innovative program, part of the B.A.L.L. for Life™ initiative, combines the excitement of a game show with essential lessons on credit and financial management. We marked the occasion where it debuted in 2023: at EntreprenUTSA at the University of Texas San Antonio. The Legacy League Game Show™ has traveled to ten universities such as Morgan State and Shaw Universities and major events across the United States. The National Urban League describes the event as transformational; HomeFree-USA calls it a “model for how to teach anything to Gen Z and other generations.” Thousands of students have participated across the country, and more than 99% report an increase in their financial literacy after the experience. As someone whose family didn’t discuss money matters growing up, this impact is especially gratifying. In addition to making learning fun, The Legacy League Game Show™ addresses a critical issue: financial invisibility among young consumers, particularly within communities of color. Forty percent of consumers under 25 are credit invisible, with 26% of Hispanic and 28% of Black consumers affected, compared to 16% of their white and Asian peers.   Special guests, including rapper and college basketball standout Flau’jae, comedian and actor Mike Merrill, Louisiana State University wide receiver Chris Hilton, Jr. and Grammy-nominated D Smoke have joined the game show, adding star power and excitement. Next year, The Legacy League Game Show™ will hit the road again, visiting more schools and events. We already have stops planned at the #IYKYK Pitch Competition in partnership with HomeFree-USA, the University of Illinois in collaboration with the Hispanic Alliance for Career Enhancement (HACE), and the UnidosUS National Conference. Check out the action from our 2024 stops by clicking here.Learn more about Experian’s commitment to underserved communities in The Power of YOU 2024: Diversity, equity, inclusion and social impact report.

Modernizing the conversation around credit and financial literacy is a key commitment for Experian, especially for young adults. That’s why we partner with organizations like the Singleton Foundation to produce “Your World on Money,” to meet young people where they are, with engaging, easy-to-understand video shorts about credit, budgeting, and saving and more.   We’re thrilled this commitment and creativity has earned both Gold and Bronze Anthem Awards, which recognize excellence in social good, celebrate the impactful work of organizations and initiatives that are driving positive change. Financial literacy is often not taught in schools, and the language around credit and personal finance can be intimidating. By normalizing these conversations, we hope to inspire confidence and action, helping young adults make informed financial decisions as they navigate life’s milestones. Our United for Financial Health partnership with the Singleton Foundation continues with our new series, the Finance Couch, where college students join our experts on a coach in the middle of a Los Angeles campus to answer their money questions. And our Anthem Award-winning series, HeartBroke, helps couples whose relationships are tested with financial issues to determine if they can work through it or end up HeartBroke(n).

Throughout time, we’ve seen examples of how new technologies can reshape the way we live our lives and manage our finances. As a millennial, the standouts to me are the start of the internet and the rise of the smart phone and mobile banking. Each innovation has opened new ways of learning and simplifying the way we do things.  Now, we find ourselves on the brink of another intriguing shift with the rise of generative AI. This development is especially timely, as we know consumers are hungry for information and resources to improve their credit scores and overall financial health. To get a better sense of how consumers are tapping into this technology, we deployed a survey which showed a significant number of Americans are already embracing generative AI. In fact, 63% of consumers are familiar with generative AI, including 84% of Gen Zers and 79% of millennials. Having learned about finances through trial and error (an approach I wouldn’t recommend), and now dedicating myself to consumer education advocacy, I find this incredibly exciting. Especially considering many consumers, nearly half, are also beginning to tap technology to help manage their personal finances. It’s perhaps no surprise this resonates most for America’s youngest consumers, with 67% of Gen Zers and 62% of millennials stating they use or are considering to use the technology to manage their personal finances. The good news is consumers who are using the technology for personal financial management are reporting an overwhelmingly positive experience – an impressive 96% reported positive experiences and 77% stated they use generative AI for personal financial tasks at least once a week. Key findings include: FINDINGSTOTALGEN Z (18-27)MILLENNIAL (28-43)GEN X (44-59)BOOMER (60-78)SILENT (79+)Indicate they are somewhat or very familiar with GenAI technology63%84%79%58%40%29%Indicate using GenAI to learn about a new topic or personal finances33%46%43%28%19%18%Indicate they are using or considering using GenAI powered tools or apps to help with managing personal finances47%67%62%41%28%23% As we continue to explore the benefits of generative AI, it’s clear this technology can be a valuable resource for improving financial literacy as we look ahead. We believe that the responsible use of AI can open new opportunities for consumers seeking to enhance their financial health. However, as with anything new, there are a few things consumers should keep in mind if they are currently leverage, or considering leveraging generative AI to learn about or manage their finances or credit scores, including: Don’t forget the basics: While there’s no question generative AI can be a helpful tool for managing your finances, consumers shouldn’t lose sight of the “old school” ways to protect their financial health and credit standing. This includes checking your credit report and scores regularly. You can get a free copy of your Experian credit report and FICO® Score[1] updated daily at www.experian.com or via Experian’s free mobile app. Consumers can also get a free credit report from each of the three credit reporting agencies once a week at www.annualcreditreport.com.  Verify your findings: Generative AI tools are only as good as the information they consume and there’s no shortage of misinformation about managing your credit scores and finances that exists online. Always cross-check AI-generated financial advice with reputable sources. You can find answers to many personal finance and credit-building questions on Ask Experian—Experian’s free credit advice blog. Be safe and use generative AI responsibly. Many of the generative AI tools that exist today collect and store user data. Be mindful of the personal information you share with generative AI tools to ensure your information is protected. In short, the rise of generative AI marks a pivotal moment in personal finance education, and an exciting one for me. As we embrace this technology, I believe we can create a more informed and financially empowered consumer base. [1] Credit score calculated based on FICO® Score 8 model. Your lender or insurer may use a different FICO® Score than FICO® Score 8, or another type of credit score altogether. Learn more.

We believe that financial literacy leads to empowerment. That is why Experian supports initiatives and partners with community organizations to deliver financial education. We also develop products and services that give more control to consumers over their credit profile and financial health. As part of advancing our mission of Financial Power to All®, we are proud to announce we are helping more than 5,000 Hispanic individuals nationwide by relieving $10 million dollars of consumer debt. To provide families with this boost, we joined forces with ForgiveCo, a Public Benefit Corporation (PBC), to administer the acquisition and cancellation of qualifying consumer debt for the selected recipients. Beneficiaries will also receive a one-year premium Experian membership for free that offers access to their Experian credit report in English and Spanish[i], FICO® Score[ii], bilingual educational content, and other financial resources. We hope this effort helps raise awareness of the importance of financial literacy for everyone, and that Experian has resources to help individuals reach their financial dreams.  To amplify the message, we collaborated with multi-platinum, award-winning singer and songwriter Prince Royce and you can see his video here. In fact, we have been making a concerted effort the last several years to evolve our educational resources and products to better support all underserved communities. Some of our other activities include the creation of the B.A.L.L. for Life initiative that connects African American and Hispanic youth with financial education, supporting scholarships for Asian Americans through the Ascend organization, providing custom resources for Out & Equal and Born This Way Foundation for the LGBTQ+ community, supporting the NextGen Innovation Lab for Disability:IN, and sponsoring credit counseling for the military community with Operation HOPE. For resources in Spanish, Experian offers a credit e-book and consumers can access a full suite of articles at the Ask Experian blog here. [i] Only Experian credit reports are available in Spanish. All other services associated with an Experian membership are available in English only. English fluency is required for full access to Experian’s products.  [ii] Credit score calculated based on FICO® Score 8 model. Your lender or insurer may use a different FICO® Score than FICO® Score 8, or another type of credit score altogether. Learn more.

This blog is written by Matt Dunn, GTM Managing Director at Experian. The Women in Sales Awards recognises the exemplary efforts of individuals in sales teams across Europe. Open by nomination only, the awards celebrate the achievement of women who go above and beyond in their career. It aims to promote the needs for greater gender diversity in sales and executive leadership teams across the corporate landscape. We place significant emphasis on helping and supporting women to reach senior roles, and I’m delighted that seven colleagues – Laura Webster, Kathryn O’Brien, Liz Clarke, Ivelina Mihaleva, Bally Ubhi, Clare Brown and Caroline McCrystal – were nominated as finalists at the awards. Even better, Caroline was named as the overall winner in the ‘2019 Best Woman in Inside Sales’ category. Not only that, Caroline was also the winner of the ‘Most Distinguished Saleswoman of the Year’ award too. In total, there were more than 1,000 nominations from companies in 22 countries, which goes to show what a remarkable and fantastic achievement to be recognised in such a way. We’re extremely proud of all their efforts this year and I’m sure you’ll join me in congratulating all of the nominees and Caroline on their outstanding success.

For many of us, the holidays are an exciting time filled with family, friends and a flurry of gift giving and receiving. Unfortunately, this time of year can also put a strain on finances and your financial health. In fact, we see many people start a new holiday season while they’re still working to pay off debt from the year before. Each year, our holiday spending survey takes a look at how people are feeling about holiday spending, how much they plan to spend and their financial goals for the new year. We found shoppers plan to spend 75% more this year on holiday spending than in 2018 with an average of $1,649, and 63% agree holiday expenses affect their finances negatively. We also found 38% of the people we spoke to are feeling stressed as the holiday season approaches. Getting a spending game plan in order now can help protect your financial health and keep your holidays merry and bright. Here are three ways to stay financially fit this holiday season and beyond: Create your holiday spending plan. Setting a budget is an important first step to ensure you’re not spending more than you can afford, but your holiday spending plan should include more than that. Think about who you need to shop for, where you’re going to shop and when you’re going to shop. Our survey showed the lure of a good deal can be hard for some to resist. In fact, one in five Americans said they would risk becoming a victim of identity theft for a good deal. Having a plan in place can help you avoid risky spending behavior while scrambling for last minute gifts. So, make that list and check it twice. Use credit as a financial tool. All year and especially around the holidays, I like to remind people that credit can be a financial tool, while debt is a financial problem. We know that about 44% of people plan to use credit to pay for gifts, and it’s important to do so responsibly. After all, the bills always arrive in January. If you’re going to use credit to pay for gifts, make sure you have a plan for paying your balances off to avoid missing payments and increasing your utilization rate – two critical factors that can have a negative impact on credit scores. Additionally, we found one in four shoppers plan to open a new credit card this season. Opening one or two cards to take advantage of in-store discounts or cash back offers can be a useful way to save money during the holidays, but don’t overdo it. If you take advantage of too many rewards offers, you may find you’ve saved yourself right into debt. Prepare your credit for holiday shopping and the new year. Getting your credit ready for the holiday season and the new year should be part of your holiday spending plan. That way, if you do plan to apply for new credit this shopping season or in 2020, your credit is ready to work for you. Get a copy of your credit report to ensure there are no surprises and catch up an any missed or late payments. This is also the first holiday season you can use free tools like Experian Boost to improve your credit scores if you’re paying your telecom and utility payments on time. We see scores improve for two out of three users with an average boost of more than 10 points. If you have a limited credit history or a thin credit file, you may see an even bigger boost to your credit score. We know almost have of those we spoke to for our survey will try to improve their credit score before the start of the new decade and Experian Boost is proving to be a valuable tool for consumers looking to do just that.  There’s often the temptation to overspend, but the best gift you can give yourself is being financially smart. My hope is these tips can help boost your holiday cheer while preparing you for a financially healthy new year.   Happy holidays.

Technology revolutionizes the way businesses operate, but implementing change within a company is often challenging and company-wide support is vital to successfully undergoing a transformation. At Experian, we’re using technology and innovation to modernize an industry, and satisfy the real-time data demands of consumers and businesses.  The success of this transformation is one of the reasons why we’re proud that our Global CIO, Barry Libenson, has been named the CIO of the Year. The 2019 Dive Awards recognize the industry’s top disruptors and innovators. These executives, companies, trends, and breakthroughs are transforming the industry. Winners were chosen by the editors of CIO Dive based on thorough and independent research, reporting, and analysis. Other award winners include Google Cloud and VMware. In 2015, Experian began the daunting task of moving from a traditional computing architecture to the cloud. Specifically, we put in motion a cloud strategy centered on flexibility and the ability to operate in any cloud. Such transformations often start by centralizing data and implementing new processes that minimize overhead and speed time to market, like cloud and mobile computing. This is a monumental job with our massive digital infrastructure and significant global reach, but it enables us to provide customers with real-time access to data. To do this we pioneered the use of Hadoop to store massive quantities of data for consumer credit scoring. Today, we maintain Ascend, a platform of 250 million redacted consumer records that enables our clients do real time queries on consumer credit data rather than batch processing. This has worked to digitally transform Experian from a traditional credit bureau to a technology and software provider. For us to further evolve we began working on APIs for internal use rather than going straight to customer-facing features. Today, we use APIs to help our clients and consumers access and make use of key data insights. For example, Experian Boost, which has helped millions of people raise their credit scores, is a result of information being accessed through API calls. As a result of our digital transformation, our API hub is processing more than 100 million transactions a month and Ascend is now one of our most successful cloud computing architectures. This all represents business opportunities that wouldn’t have been possible with a traditional digital infrastructure. Success for the technology team at Experian is found in the financial performance of the company.  “What I tell my team is the biggest sign of us being successful is praise,” said Libenson. “When the businesses at Experian tell us we’re helping them or we’re doing the right things, that’s the best measurement I can think of, in terms of success.” As one of the world’s most innovative companies, Experian’s business continues to evolve to deliver faster, better services for our clients and consumers. “The people and organizations that win the Dive Awards are trailblazers and leaders in their markets,” said Davide Savenije, editor-in-chief of CIO Dive’s publisher Industry Dive. “Their achievements in 2019 are shaping the future of where the latest strategies and trends are going.” While industry accolades like CIO of the Year are important, the truth is that any transformation isn’t an endpoint, but a journey. To succeed, we are in it for the long haul to use technology to help deliver results for our clients.   Read the full article on CIODive to learn more about Experian’s digital transformation.

We’re delighted to have been named as one of Britain’s ‘Most Admired Companies’ (BMAC) in Management Today’s annual survey, coming 21st in a list of nearly 250 leading firms from a variety of sectors, and taking third place in the ‘Business Support Services’ sector. Our 17,000 colleagues around the world work hard every day to service and power opportunities for our customers and this award is testament to the commitment they bring to our business every day. The hard work doesn’t stop here. We continue to strive for the highest standards across our global organisation, and we remain committed to delivering the very best services that can empower millions of people to stay in control of their finances, and help businesses meet the needs of their customers. For further information on BMAC, the winners and the methodology, please see: https://www.managementtoday.co.uk/bmac

In today’s fast-paced markets, businesses of all sizes strive for an edge over competition, especially when it comes to wining over consumers’ hearts and minds. Many find that competitive advantage in the way they apply artificial intelligence to improve their customer decision-making for high business performance. Data strategies for high-performance decisioning In today’s fast-paced markets, businesses of all sizes strive for an edge over competition, especially when it comes to wining over consumers’ hearts and minds. Many find that competitive advantage in the way they apply artificial intelligence to improve their customer decision-making for high business performance.In fact, recent research we commissioned from Forrester Consulting shows that this. The ability to make meaningful decisions that match your customer’s context at a given point in time requires a solid understanding of their needs and goals. Having access to relevant data is essential to consistently deliver experiences that matter. Timing and availability of data is equally important to improving your customer-level decision-making; to make those sought-after better, contextual decisions, you need to have the pertinent data available at the right place and time to meet that given consumer’s moment of need. For example, in an operational environment, this may translate into accessing the right type, amount and quality of data in real time, so you are able to respond how and when your customer expects. The role of responsible usage of data in building, fuelling, and maintaining your AI-driven business The energy needs of athletes exceed those of the average person. Similarly, in the AI world, data (nutrient) needs for high-performance require consistent markers over a long period of time. Data scientists looking after credit and fraud risk would use the same variables or ‘nutrients’ that have been traditionally used for conventional scorecard developments to fuel machine learning methods to build predictive models. These are ‘proteins’ such as application data, any behavioural data your business has on existing customers, credit bureau data, segmentation data, available public information or transaction data. Some trended economic data can be used as input for developing credit risk methods and governance to fit leading financial reporting standards and frameworks (think of IFRS 9 or Basel, for example). Similarly, to assess affordability, you will need to feed your algorithms with disposable income over your customers’ lifetime plus data about how they use it. Financial data about customers’ savings, and investments allows for more accurate risk management while property related info derived from rental data is useful for extending personalised credit offers. Meanwhile, more and more businesses are using speech and text data obtained through voice recognition to improve the collection process. In fact, recent research we commissioned from Forrester Consulting shows that this ‘race for the customer’ comes down to who knows them best. The ability to make meaningful decisions that match your customer’s context at a given point in time requires a solid understanding of their needs and goals. Having access to relevant data is essential to consistently deliver experiences that matter. Timing and availability of data is equally important to improving your customer-level decision-making; to make those sought-after better, contextual decisions, you need to have the pertinent data available at the right place and time to meet that given consumer’s moment of need. For example, in an operational environment, this may translate into accessing the right type, amount and quality of data in real time, so you are able to respond how and when your customer expects. The role of responsible usage of data in building, fuelling, and maintaining your AI-driven business The energy needs of athletes exceed those of the average person. Similarly, in the AI world, data (nutrient) needs for high-performance require consistent markers over a long period of time. Data scientists looking after credit and fraud risk would use the same variables or ‘nutrients’ that have been traditionally used for conventional scorecard developments to fuel machine learning methods to build predictive models. These are ‘proteins’ such as application data, any behavioural data your business has on existing customers, credit bureau data, segmentation data, available public information or transaction data. Some trended economic data can be used as input for developing credit risk methods and governance to fit leading financial reporting standards and frameworks (think of IFRS 9 or Basel, for example). Similarly, to assess affordability, you will need to feed your algorithms with disposable income over your customers’ lifetime plus data about how they use it. Financial data about customers’ savings, and investments allows for more accurate risk management while property related info derived from rental data is useful for extending personalised credit offers. Meanwhile, more and more businesses are using speech and text data obtained through voice recognition to improve the collection process.