JR TOC Review

Half of married couples in the U.S. say that credit scores were important to them when choosing a mate, according to the latest Experian Consumer Services survey comparing the relationship between marriage and credit. The study also showed that 95% of participants rate “financial responsibility” as important, with “physical attractiveness” and “career ambition” following at 86% and 77%, respectively. Even more surprising, married adults ranked financial compatibility high, even slightly higher than sex and intimacy. In fact, 73% of women and 60% of men stated that having a partner who is willing to communicate openly about personal finances and credit makes him/her more attractive. Check out what else married couples said about their relationship and finances in the complete summary of our survey results here: Love and Marriage… and Credit from Experian_US

According to new research from Experian Marketing Services, a global provider of integrated consumer insights, targeting, data quality and cross-channel marketing, mobile devices are playing an increasingly important role in how users make purchases across all categories. While purchases using a computer or digital tablet still reign supreme, transactions via mobile phones are on the rise, and marketers are poised to take advantage of this trend. The adoption of mobile marketing increased 17 percent in 2013, while 71 percent of marketers currently are engaging consumers in the mobile channel. This trend, among others, is highlighted in Experian Marketing Services’ recently released 2014 Digital Marketer: Benchmark and Trend Report. The report is an annual go-to resource for marketers looking for key industry benchmarks, insights, technology trends and consumer data. “Using a mobile device as a shopping tool is one thing; using it to make a purchase is another,” said Bill Tancer, general manager of global research, Experian Marketing Services. “One industry in particular that marketers recently have taken advantage of is food. Consumers are increasingly moving from researching on their mobile devices to actually making food purchases on-the-go, including grocery home delivery and even onsite point-of-purchase, where available.” Mobile food purchase trends When it comes to food purchases, affluents are 12 percent more likely to purchase food products through their mobile phone, 29 percent more likely to purchase through their tablet and 30 percent more likely to purchase through their personal computer. Affluent consumers also are more likely to visit the Websites of popular family restaurants, as well as the leading reservations site, OpenTable.com. As of April 2014, the top five food Websites visited by affluents were: Charitable giving Among device owners, purchase rates consistently are higher on tablets and computers than on smartphones due to the larger screen. However, the one exception is charitable giving. Affluents are just as likely to have made a charitable donation from their smartphone as they are to have made one from their tablet, and contributions made from a computer are only marginally higher than those on tablets and phones. Charitable organizations have made donating as easy as sending a text, which is likely why charitable donations is the only category with mobile purchase rates as high as those from a tablet. “Marketers can take a page from the charitable sector’s playbook and streamline their own purchase process. This might include allowing repeat customers to conduct transactions using financial information on file, using mobile-optimized design for collecting payment information or other innovative approaches that allow the would-be customer to transact from anywhere,” added Tancer. Mobile travel purchase trends One category favored by affluent consumers is mobile travel purchases. Affluents are 16 percent more likely than average to book travel from a mobile phone, 42 percent more likely to book from a tablet and 31 percent more likely to book their travel through their personal computer. “The data highlighted in our Digital Marketer Report reveals that a demographic such as affluents, who are prime for booking travel, is only booking travel at marginally higher levels than average via mobile. This means that travel marketers can benefit from focusing efforts on streamlining the mobile booking process,” said Tancer. Overall, the report highlights how marketers can take advantage of this data to more successfully target and engage with their customers. The percentage of mobile phone owners who say they are interested in receiving advertising on their mobile phone has risen by 45 percent since 2010. Nearly one in 10 mobile phone owners today say that they are likely to buy products that they see advertised on their phones, up from 6 percent in 2010. The 2014 Digital Marketer: Benchmark and Trend Report is available via a free download at http://ex.pn/PpijOx.

Experian® is pleased to announce its partnership with Clear Channel and the premiere of its iHeart Radio show, Credit & Finance Talk with Experian, which is already gaining lots of listeners. Credit & Finance Talk with Experian The show covers topics like “Getting Rid of a Bad Score” and “Items on Your Credit Report” to educate listeners on the importance of credit in their everyday lives. Listeners are invited to check back every week for new episodes of Credit 101, where you can get the inside scoop on how to live credit-confident. Premiere Endorsements The next time you listen to a Clear Channel radio station, you might just hear your favorite radio personality chatting about Experian Credit TrackerSM. Our partnership features premiere radio personality endorsements from Ryan Seacrest, Delilah, Jay Mohr, Steve Gorman and John Boy & Billy. Exclusive iHeart Radio Theatre Along with radio, Experian has the incredible opportunity to sponsor entertainment at the iHeart radio theatre and had the opportunity to already share the experience with fans of Coldplay, Young the Giant, and Rascal Flatts. We are excited to partner with Clear Channel to help bring credit education to consumers nationwide. Be sure to check back for more exciting episodes of Credit 101, engaging interviews, credit information and more. You can also find answers to common credit questions here on Experian.com.

The first 24 hours of a Data Breach Response are the most critical and we have the most important seven steps to insure that your organization does not go off track. A data breach of personal identity information or protected healthcare information is a breach of trust.  Employees, patients, consumers or even partners are put at risk if their information is disclosed during a security incident. In this session Experian’s data breach experts walked attendees through the first steps in the response process that will insure businesses do not run into trouble with the affected parties, the media and regulators. We included specific examples of what to do and how to be successful in your response. We touched on the key things to avoid, tapping over 10 years of experience and nearly 13,000 incidents serviced. For more information, visit  www.experian.com/24hourchecklist. Vision 2014: The First 24 Hours of a Breach from Experian Business Information Services

The Small Business Credit Share is a “give-to-get” data consortium in which members provide more detailed data about the performance of the accounts in their portfolios. In exchange for expanded contribution, members get exclusive access to enriched information that is deeper in content than what is available to standard Experian clients or through competitive credit share programs. They benefit from the more comprehensive reports, business credit scores, attributes, and reporting that are available. The Small Business Credit Share is open to all credit granting institutions, including financial institutions, companies that issue trade credit, telcos, utilities and others.  The tradeline performance reporting from this broad swath of B2B companies helps drive the effectiveness of the products that are available to members. The Small Business Credit Share has firm qualification standards to insure consistent information and regular reporting guidelines are followed, to help protect the interests of all members. In the past two-plus years, there has been good growth in the member base of the Small Business Credit Share. While attracting new members from a variety of industries, there also continues to be growing interest from financial institutions who presently report to other data consortia about becoming Small Business Credit Share members. Experian is working with them to highlight the advantages of reporting to multiple reporting agencies. In addition to increasing the likelihood that their interests will be protected if their customer’s obligations are more widely reported, they also give themselves more flexibility to manage the expense side of their operations. And when (not ‘if’) regulatory bodies shift their focus to the small business arena, some lenders are envisioning that broader reporting could become the rule. For example, the SBA is requiring that all SBA-backed loans be reported to commercial bureaus; whether that means to all commercial bureaus or to simply at least one is unclear. But the SBA’s rationale is clear: they want credit histories established for these companies so that SBA-backing should not be needed in the future. There are some exciting new products in development for Small Business Credit Share participants. The first of these is the upcoming release of an additional set of attributes which have been developed based on consumer experience and which will add considerable insight for credit risk managers. To assess their information value, these attributes were overlaid into a proof-of-concept score. The resultant model showed a 22% lift in KS and a 29% increase the percent of ‘bads’ pushed into the bottom 10% of the score range. There is also an ongoing development effort to replace the current Small Business Credit Share acquisition score. The new score will clearly benefit from the availability of the new attributes, but will also benefit from being developed on a population booked over a 2-year span from a much more recent time period (Nov 2010 to Oct 2012). The new score will be a blended model, with a ‘commercial-only’ option for clients that do not want to consider any consumer data within the score. The model will also use bureau-leveled consumer attributes, which will allow the model to work not only with Experian consumer data, but with consumer data from Equifax and Trans Union as well. Vision 2014: A Current Look at Commercial Credit Consortium Data from Experian Business Information Services

Did you know that this week is National Small Business Week? It is a time dedicated entirely to acknowledging the positive impact small businesses have on our economy. So let’s take a moment to recognize the contributions that millions of entrepreneurs and small business owners have made to our local communities. Whether it’s creating jobs or providing our favorite products and services at convenient locations, here’s to Small Business – they are truly the backbone of our nation’s economy. So during National Small Business Week, we at Experian will be participating in several activities that help small businesses understand their credit and make better decisions that will enable them to achieve and maintain success. Below are some of this week’s activities as well as some resources available to small business owners everyday: EVENTS: Wednesday, May 14 • 12 p.m. eastern – We will present a free webinar with the National Federation of Independent Business, and explore some of the misunderstandings of business credit, provide advice on how to build business credit and explain how a positive credit profile can help your business grow • 3 p.m. Eastern – We will continue the discussion on business credit, as we host a tweet chat (#CreditChat) with several small business experts. You’ll be able to ask questions and read best practices on how you can make business credit work for you. RESOURCES: • For access to tools and resources to help your business grow, visit www.experian.com/small-business • To better understand and learn the benefits managing your business credit, visit www.businesscreditfacts.com • For instant access to business credit report and scores, visit www.smartbusinessreports.com At Experian, we understand that en route to bringing communities our favorite barbers, ice cream stores, book shops, etc., small businesses owners experience challenges along the way. Whether it’s obtaining the necessary capital to make payroll or order more inventory, these challenges can seem a bit overwhelming and intimidating, especially when trying to manage the day to day operations of the business. This is why Experian helps entrepreneurs and small business owners by providing the right tools, resources and expert advice to help grow their businesses and keep our economy strong!