Equifax Logo
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6.0

Overall Score

LAST UPDATED: October 17th, 2023

Equifax is a credit monitoring agency that was founded in 1899 in Atlanta, Georgia. The privately held company offers an identity protection Lock & Alert service for both individuals.

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The Good

  • Identity Theft Prevention
  • Free Service

Identity Theft Prevention

Equifax works to catch identity theft before it even happens. The company provides triple-bureau credit monitoring, internet scanning, social security number monitoring, fraud alerts, and credit freezes.

Free Service

Equifax's Lock & Alert service is a free service that allows customers to easily lock and unlock their Equifax credit report. By locking their credit report, customers can have additional protection against identity theft criminals. 

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The Bad

  • Limited Recovery Services
  • No Antivirus Software

Limited Recovery Services

While Equifax does offer assistance with financial identity recovery, there are a number of other restoration services that the company does not provide. For example, Equifax cannot help with medical, criminal, or tax identity recovery.

No Antivirus Software

Equifax does not provide its customers with antivirus software to protect sensitive data on their computers. 

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The Bottom Line

Equifax offers a free identity protection Lock & Alert service as well as several other services. However, Equifax's recovery services are limited and the company does not offer antivirus software. 

View Best Identity Theft Companies

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Star Rating

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4.1

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64 Reviews

Review Breakdown

5 grade

61%

4 grade

14%

3 grade

9%

2 grade

3%

1 grade

13%

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ScottB31369 Fort Lauderdale, FL

Equifax has TERRIBLE customer care! Andrea the young woman who took my call, can’t say helped me because she was no help at all and rude as can be. Not only did she talk over me multiple times but had no idea how to help me and only repeated to my what my score was and what was on my report. Absolutely NO HELP AT ALL!!! Equifax lowered my score by 61 points over night with absolutely no change to my credit report at all and had absolutely no explanation for this. Just repeating my report like I said. When I asked to speak to a supervisor all I got was a run around! Told they had to look for one, then put on hold for 10 minutes. Ridiculous! And so everyone knows, Equifax’s customer care is located in the Philippines! So the place that has more scams then anywhere in the world has all our personal information, and I mean ALL personal information. Not good.

5 months ago

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Kiyomi Baker

I was contacted by a financial institution to verify some information for opening a savings account which is normal for me as I dealt with identity theft about four years ago. He mentioned after the verification that one of my credit cards was showing a much higher limit than what I thought. I contacted my bank, and they confirmed everything looked normal. Then, I tried to contact Equifax *cue Law and Order theme* I tried 7 phone numbers throughout this entire situation. I went through countless automated messages (including the one asking for all of your information to get your FREE credit report which after 20 minutes just asks you send in a letter with all that information anyways - just a tiny, tiny slice of the how useless and convoluted their IVR system is), and by the time I finally got through to a real person (48 minutes into this process), where she cheerfully said "yup, I can check!", to only be told, sorry, this line is for the US only, please call the Canada line. So I called the Canada line. Straight up busy signal - no IVR, no phone queue (and I run a call center, so I know how these systems work), clearly out of service or not functional. Back to the website - try another two phone numbers. Busy signal. Try the Equifax line for the recent breaches - I get a gentleman who not only can't access any of my personal information (so how are they supposed to check if your information was compromised, exactly?), he couldn't even give me a phone number or transfer me - I imagine he's been getting sh** on all day so I politely said thank you and hung up, but I honestly can't tell you what they're being paid for. Another 5 minutes down the drain. At this point, over an hour in, I cave and decide to access my credit report online, either to check the information for myself, or get access to this so called "dedicated phone line in the Member Center". I paid my 16.95, verified that the information the original guy gave me was incorrect and there was nothing to worry about. Then I spend the next 20 minutes trying to find a phone number to cancel the service, as the first two (where "please cancel my service" leads you to), again didn't work, and had a busy signal. I finally find a number that works, and ask to cancel my service, and for a refund. Where I'm politely told that yes, I can have the monthly subscription cancelled, but nope, no process for refunds (which is a load of bullsh**). So when I asked "so, you're telling me that in order to confirm my suspicions that I may have had fraud on my account, or my IDENTITY STOLEN, that even if I had been able to contact someone, anyone, I would have had to pay you, over the phone, for that information". Apparently that is a yes. So, Equifax, not only is your website useless, your phone lines and IVR system completely chaotic, nonsensical, and a huge waste of time (not to mention ridiculously sensitive, I coughed at one point and got taken back all the way to the beginning of the options), your staff for the breach completely ill equipped to handle customers (and therefore probably hating their lives while being yelled at by people who, shocker, kind of value their personal information and want to talk to someone who can actually help them), but you, at this point in time, to me, seem like straight up thieves. I've had my identity stolen before, and all I wanted was a confirmation that this information was either correct, or not, without having to wait for my "free" credit report in the mail while someone could have been racking up a credit card in my name. Long story short, I'm out two hours of my life and 17$ for something that I could have called ONE line for, and with proper verification been actually HELPED by your organization, instead of feeling robbed and angry. I tried to keep this to the point, and respectful of the people working for your company, because I get it, they don't make the rules, they don't run the system, but WOW...your company is just awful.

6 years ago

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John Howarth

After seeing the adverts to check your credit score through Clearscore, I opened an account with them where they take all their information from Equifax. The information Equifax give to Clearscore to issue a score is so outdated and incorrect. They are a dangerous company when it affects your personal finances. Trying to contact them is very difficult with E-mails taking weeks to be answered and then with generic answers. If you ring them with calls being transferred overseas, it is so difficult to actually understand the personnel as English is not their first language. They then try to pass the buck and say it is the responsibility of Clearscore who should be contacted. E-mails have been exchanged but the Equifax staff seem incapable of understanding simple statements. They have the audacity to make false statements regarding my bank account and then advise I should contact my bank to correct the situation when it is simply Equifax who have no clue as to what they are doing. Whilst contacting Equifax by E-mail, they then advise that they need to see a copy of my credit report to investigate my concerns. This is the very same credit report that Equifax produce. I really question the knowledge of the staffing of this outfit as they simply cannot understand common sense.This company requires investigating by the authorities,and details have been sent to the Financial Ombudsman. BEWARE.There are other similar companies to use instead

6 years ago

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Therese Markert Minneapolis, MN

Equifax ID Patrol was offered to me when I called in to place a fraud alert with all three credit bureaus on my accounts. It was described as offering unlimited 3-in-1 credit reporting, as well as alerts related to identify theft, however I received only ONE 3-in-1 credit report, and no alerts as of today (5/4) from when I signed up on 4/9. I essentially paid Equifax $16.95 for what should have been free. I called in to get written confirmation of product details, but was referred to their secure website to get this info using my product login ID. I tried to get a refund for the product on 4/13, but was told that no partial month refunds are given. I would NEVER recommend this product to anyone. I feel cheated.

7 years ago

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Ashley Columbus, GA

DO NOT USE EQUIFAX!!!!!! I purchased a credit report in December and a few days later, decided I did not want it anymore. I called in to cancel my subscription/membership. I was given a confirmation number but did not write it down (stupid me). Today, April 12th, I noticed I received bills for December, January, February and March. I spent forty minutes on the phone and was transferred three different times. The second person I spoke with said they have no record of me calling and could not do anything to refund me. I was then transferred to ANOTHER person to cancel my subscription and have to pay for this current billing cycle.

7 years ago

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lena Crystal Lake, IL

Tried to get someone in the US to speak to and all I keep getting is the Indian call center and they do not understand what I need this is the worst customer service ever. So no resolution, how can I get my issues corrected when all they do is read off a piece of paper.Totally unbelievable and they hold my credit in there hands over seas.

7 years ago

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Liz Cross Saint Paul, MN

Equifax is extremely slow in updating information, reports information that is two years old as if it were new, and their "customer service representatives" are almost impossible to understand, completely unhelpful, and rude.

7 years ago

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Billy Wren Fairfield, CA

Their information is usually outdated. They say they show all three major credit reporting companies but if you go on the other’s sites the information is always different.

2 years ago