Featured Product

Score Watch™

Celebrate our improved Member Center with the gift of a Score Watch™ subscription for yourself or someone you care about. Score Watch™ makes it easy to target your ideal score, see interest rates you are likely to receive and watch your score trend over time. With Score Watch™, you'll receive:

Continuous score monitoring and notification when a change in your FICO^® score impacts the interest rate you are likely to receive
Detailed explanations for key score changes and specific tips for understanding your score
Daily monitoring of your Equifax credit file with alerts of key changes (email/wireless)
Two FREE Score Power^® reports^†, plus discounts on additional Score power^® reports

Yours for only $9.95 a month!

Your Enhanced Credit Watch Member Center

At Equifax, we've listened to your feedback and are proud to launch an enhanced Credit Watch component of our re-designed Member Center. Our changes include simpler navigation, enhanced credit report summaries, easy-to-customize alerts, and many more empowering features.

Viewing Your Information:
New, tabbed navigation and a comprehensive dashboard within the Member Center simplify your experience, allowing you to take full advantage of each of the features of your product. Now you can explore your credit information more easily. Simply choose what aspect of your profile you'd like to see from the various tabs presented. Plus, we've simplified the way in which we present your data to you, making it easier to understand and apply to your everyday life.

Understand Your Credit File:
Graphical representations of your credit information help you understand the important factors in your credit history, how lenders may view you, and the debt-to-credit ratio for each of your accounts. The new Member Center helps you not only see the information in your credit file, but it also helps you understand it.

Locking and Unlocking Your Credit File:
Now you can take steps to protect against the damaging effects caused by identity theft! Do you know who has access to your credit file? If you've added Equifax Credit Report Control™ to your Credit Watch subscription, you can lock and unlock access to your Equifax credit file, deciding who can see your Equifax credit file and when at the touch of a button.* With the new Member Center enhancements, the product will appear in red at the right-hand side of your screen and will be grayed out if you haven't yet added Equifax Credit Report Control™.

Customizing Your Alerts:
The helpful alerts based on key changes to your Equifax credit file are now easier to customize. Whether you want to set a balance change or dormant card activity alert, accessing your alert preferences is a breeze in the new Member Center. Simply scroll down to the “Credit Watch Alerts” section after logging in to customize your alert settings.

Viewing Current and Archived Alerts:
You can access your current and past alerts and receive a comprehensive explanation of each change. This can help you spot trends in your Equifax credit file over time and allow you to act on unfamiliar changes.

You will also be able to enjoy a number of empowering articles and information designed to help you understand the basics of your credit, what it means, and what factors can impact it. More than simply presenting your credit information, Equifax's Credit Watch Member Center enhancements can help you monitor your credit file and understand the fundamentals of your creditworthiness.

Tip of the Month: Maximize your Product, Customize Your Alerts

With your subscription to a Credit Watch product, you can enjoy customizable alerts to ensure you know about key changes to your credit file almost as soon as they occur! That way, if an erroneous change is detected, the matter can be quickly resolved — putting you back in control of your credit!

To access and change these preferences, simply scroll down to the “Credit Watch Alerts” section after logging into the Member Center. From here, you can see what sort of credit changes would result in an alert. You can also set up your alerts to notify you if your charge card balance increases by a certain dollar amount of percentage. Additionally, you can choose to be notified if a dormant card suddenly becomes active. You may also set your preferences to receive wireless alerts whenever key changes occur.

Interactive Tool: How Much House Can You Afford

The first step in buying a house is determining your budget. This calculator takes you through the process of finding out how much you can borrow. Fill in the entry fields and click on the “View Report” button to see a complete amortization schedule of your mortgage payments.

Identity Theft Alerts: Identifying Fake Foreign Lottery Scams

In recent years, instances of foreign lottery fraud have continued to rise. Fortunately, more and more consumers across the U.S. and Canada have been contacting the Better Business Bureau to inquire about the legitimacy of notices they received by mail and/or e-mail announcing they have won substantial sums of money in a foreign lottery. Statistics from 2006 show the Better Business Bureau System received nearly 8,200 inquiries from consumers on foreign lottery scams, a 14 percent increase from the previous year.

In many of these fraud cases, the lottery notices are accompanied by a check or money order for several thousand dollars. Recipients are being instructed to deposit the checks and wire transfer all or portions of the money back to the company to pay for fees or taxes in order to receive their winnings.

The BBB does not want to see another honest, trusting person fall prey to a lottery scheme and cannot stress too emphatically the dangers of responding to these types of correspondence. Even if no money is transferred to these organizations, simply providing an ID or bank account details to an unknown party makes consumers vulnerable to identity theft and fraudulent use of their bank accounts.

To help consumers identify a lottery scam, the BBB provides the following checklist:

Was the lottery notification delivered to you by mail or e-mail? If you receive a winning lottery notification by regular mail or e-mail, there is a good chance it is fraudulent. Legitimate lottery companies will usually send winning notices by certified mail, Federal Express, UPS or DHL delivery services. On the other hand, if you have played the lottery online, you may be notified by e-mail. However, you still must log into your account to check your winnings and choose whether you want to be paid by check or by a credit to your credit card.
Does the notification appear to come from another country? Organizations behind these frauds operate under different names, often derived from well-known lotteries in other countries. U.S. citizens should know that it is illegal to participate in a foreign lottery by using U.S. mail services.
Were you sent a check or money order with your notification? Fraudulent promoters will sometimes send a check or money order along with notification to convince you they are real. While the checks and money orders may look official, they are counterfeit!
Are you asked to wire transfer money or mail a personal check to cover some type of fee or taxes? Fraudulent promoters will ask you to deposit the check or money order and then instruct you to wire money or send a personal check back to them to cover what may seem like legitimate fees, such as processing, administrative, handling or tax fees. They also may instruct you to call a number to claim your winnings. When you do, they will try to get you to send money or ask for personal identification information that will undoubtedly be used for identity theft purposes. If you deposit a bogus check or money order in your bank account, keep in mind that you will be held responsible for any money you spend or send to anyone else.
Does the lottery promoter's name and address on the check match the name and address on the envelope? In many instances it does not. The company name is usually different on the check, the bank name on the check is fraudulent and the account number stolen — making the check a counterfeit. Sponsors of legitimate lotteries and sweepstakes identify themselves prominently on their checks and on the envelopes.
Are the notifications sent by people claiming to be bankers, gaming officials, claims agents, tax collectors, attorneys, or a high ranking government official? Scam artists will use any number of titles in an effort to convince you that they are legitimate.

The BBB wants everyone to understand that legitimate lottery or sweepstakes companies will not ask you to send money in order to collect your winnings. They will not ask you for personal information.

Foreign lottery scams steal millions of dollars from unsuspecting people every year. If you receive any form of notification that you are a prize winner in a foreign lottery or sweepstakes, contact the BBB (www.bbb.org) and check it out before you become the next victim in this type scheme.