Consumer education

Each year we provide simple easy-to-understand literature for consumers. In the UK we distributed information to consumer advice centres across the UK, including a mail-shot to Citizens Advice Bureaux, through exhibition events and through our Credit Crossroads hotline.  Many more leaflets were downloaded in electronic format from our website.  In the US we updated our Credit Score Basics booklet to include information about the new VantageScore system and added colourful graphics to make the information more meaningful to consumers.  Serasa publishes and distributes the Citizenship Series - educational manuals, books and brochures with guidance on responsible credit use and credit law of interest to consumers. There are 12 publications in the series and this year the publication ‘Learn your homework to develop education in Brazil’ was launched.

We also communicate through influential groups such as the media, government agencies and consumer advocacy groups to dramatically increase our reach.  We gave over 200 media interviews in the US alone with a similar active media programme in the UK to help promote and explain responsible credit. We work with third parties such as US State and local Government agencies responsible for consumer protection.

Experian’s public education team spoke at national consumer organisation’s and client’s conferences, including the Institute for Financial Literacy, Call For Action, and the Credit Union National Association in the US. Experian UK worked closely with the Office of Fair trading (OFT), the Home Credit industry and the Information Commission to facilitate the inclusion of information about home credit loans on credit reports, to help promote competition and financial inclusion.

More than 10% of people who checked their statutory credit report in the UK in 2007/8 said they were checking their report before making a credit application. We consider this a direct result of the advice we issue through the various elements of our consumer education programme, to help consumers get credit and at the best rates.

Experian continues to be a strong supporter of national youth education programs. The National Consumers League LifeSmarts program – sponsored by Experian – shares important personal financial knowledge with more than 30,000 middle and high-school aged students across the US.  In the UK, Experian sponsors the Young Consumers of the Year national competition (including a round called A Question of Credit, which we help set the questions for) and the Consumer Challenge Quiz, a national consumers' rights competition for young children with special needs.