Experian's Reply re CreditExpert

Discussion in 'Credit Talk' started by chriscraft, Jul 17, 2001.

  1. chriscraft

    chriscraft Well-Known Member

    The other day I wrote an email to the customer service department in charge of the CreditExpert product at Experian. In my email, I asked them a number of questions and pointed out some obvious problems with their system. Below is my original email and their response which I received this morning. While in my opinion the letter is basically non-responsive and self-serving, it may be helpful to those who are having the same problems as I am with their system.

    __________________________________________________
    Here's my letter:

    Sirs:

    I am a member of CreditExpert and have some important comments/questions for you.

    First, I need to know how current the CreditExpert score is vis-a-vis my current Experian credit report. Please tell me. It appears that the CreditExpert score lags behind changes made to the credit report, meaning that changes made to the credit report are not simultaneously reflected in the score. A number of others I know have noticed this exact same thing
    with their scores/reports, and many postulate that CreditExpert only updates on a periodic basis, like once a week or so. Is this correct? If so, when
    does it update? If the score does not simultaneously reflect changes made
    to one's credit report, why not? It makes the product far less useful if that is the case.

    Second, you have a severe problem with your Credit Score Simulator. Specifically, the vertical bar graphic that is supposed to represents my score does not reflect it correctly. Today, for example, I have a score of 572, and the way it is posted on the bar graph, it looks as if I only have a score of around 345 or so. This is clearly incorrect, and I am positive
    that this miscalibration of the scale affects the results given by the simulator. I know this because I have played with the simulator. I know of many other people who have this exact same problem, so it is real and needs to be corrected immediately. Please explain this problem, what you intend to do to fix it, and when you will be fixing it.

    Third, I would like to know exactly how accurate the score simulator is. In other words, in my case, for example, when I simulate that I only have say 3
    inquiries rather than 13, it tells me my score will jump to about a 625 or so. Is this even remotely accurate? How accurate is it, in fact? Many
    people, myself included, want to know this.

    Honestly, having just spent $79.95 for this product, I am somewhat unhappy with the way it is functioning. I would like an immediate response to my above inquiries, otherwise I will be strongly considering canceling my subscription. Please rest assured that the problems I have noted are not
    specific to me only, as they are being suffered by every person I know that subscribes to your service. Thus, it is in your best interests to quickly
    address these problems before they cause you to lose paying customers.

    Please write your response to me at xxxxx@xxxx. I expect to hear from you within the next business day. Thank you in advance for your prompt and
    thorough reply.

    xxxxxx xxxxxx

    __________________________________________________

    Now, here is Experian's response:


    Thank you for contacting CreditExpert Customer Service:

    Your credit score is a fluid number that changes as your credit report changes. If you have detrimental items on your Experian credit report your score will
    come down, if you have positive items your score will rise. A score will typically change only a few points in a quarter.

    The information found on your customized home page is powered by Experian. However, Credit Manager updates your information every 24 hours. For instance, if you login to Credit Manager twice within a 24-hour period your will view the same information.

    Your credit score as reflected in the score analysis section is a real credit score. The simulator is for educational purposes only, it should not serve as a
    guide for changing your actual credit score. Instead, use the Simulator to better understand the
    relationship between score factors and credit scores.

    If we can be of further assistance, please feel free to contact us.

    Your CreditExpert Team
    https://www.creditexpert.com/
     
  2. Mist

    Mist Well-Known Member

    What an inadequate reply!
     
  3. chriscraft

    chriscraft Well-Known Member

    Mist, yeah, tell me about it. Personally, I think it is very non-responsive to my comments and questions, all of which I thought were very clear and direct. I expected nothing less from them, though, given my ongoing dealings with those guys. Oh well, I tried.
     
  4. cosjef

    cosjef Well-Known Member

    Well, at least we know how often it gets updated--thats fewer logins for me during the day. Ha ha ha.

    cosjef
    "707 FICO and rising. Mortgage, here I come!"
     
  5. Jim

    Jim Well-Known Member

    Chriscraft,

    You did us all the favor of asking the questions we have all wondered about. Even if the answer was inadequate, at least we know a little more than before.

    Jim
     
  6. chriscraft

    chriscraft Well-Known Member

    Jim, you're right -- at least we learned that CreditExpert changes every 24 hours. That should help those of us on this board (read: me) who are compulsive enough to want to check their Experian scores on an intraday basis! Now, all I have to do is figure out what exact hour of the day they update the info. That answer should keep me down to one review per day!
     
  7. DaveLV

    DaveLV Well-Known Member

    While Credit Expert updates only once a day, now that I can see my Experian report anytime I want I notice that updates to the credit report itself occur at random. If you're expecting a change and don't see it during the day you might try looking at the report again that night.

    The Credit Expert system won't pick up the change until the next day, but you can see it on the report right away.
     
  8. chriscraft

    chriscraft Well-Known Member

    DaveLV, interesting observation. Now I guess I'll have to go back to logging onto CreditExpert twelve times a day!
     
  9. Mist

    Mist Well-Known Member

    Interesting. I logged into CreditExpert twice today. Just now it showed $0 for recent payment to two of my accounts, one is my mortgage and another is a revolving line of credit. Maybe they are updating right now???? Everything else looks the same. Both of these accounts have beginning of the month statement dates so I suppose mid month would be the update for the previous payments.
     
  10. chriscraft

    chriscraft Well-Known Member

    Mist, I think you have come across yet another of CreditExpert's many problems. I noticed the exact same problem with my accounts - last payment noted as "zero", which is clearly wrong. This is the case with all of my accounts.

    I don't know what in the heck is wrong with Experian -wouldn't you think they would have tested their own damned system out before giving millions of people access to it? I mean, the problems we are all experiencing with their system are not exotic or complex in nature -- heck, they are very elemental problems with the functioning of the base system. These problems should never occur.

    I don't understand it at all. And they don't seem to really care about the problems from what I can tell. Perhaps it's PlanetFeedback time.
     
  11. marvin

    marvin Well-Known Member

    Why wait when they can be making $80 a pop now, LOL. Doesn't matter if it works, just so they get their money. Just look at the identity guard
     
  12. G. Fisher

    G. Fisher Banned

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