Jeff Softley, direct to consumer president at Experian, joins Cheddar News to discuss what it means to be credit invisible, how big of an issue this is in the U.S., and what resources are out there to bridge this gap.

Between Bells

The State of Credit Invisible Consumers in the U.S. 

guys between Bells this segment brought to you by experience empowering consumers to take an active role in their financial health. Now, taking control of our financial health very important, but it's also not always easy to get started. In fact, a huge portion of americans fall under the category of being credit invisible. So joining us now to explain that and so much more is Jeff softly president of direct to Consumer over at experience, Jeff such a pleasure to have you here. So what exactly does it mean to be credit invisible? And just how big of an issue is it in this country? Well, thank you for having me baker. Um it's really, it's a really big problem. Being in credit invisible means that you don't have a credit profile, and that means that lenders can't see you. There's roughly 28 million consumers in the us that just don't have access to mainstream credit and that can have a big impact on consumers abilities to thrive in their financial lives. It can impact your ability to buy a car, rent an apartment, or even buy a house. Um, and an experience, we think that financial inclusion is a central part of our mission. We're committed to helping consumers overcome this problem. And so let's talk about this, what resources are out there for people to solve this problem and how we also help consumers get access to credit here. Well, I'm glad you asked. We just launched a new free product to directly address this issue. It's called experience go. And for the first time ever, consumers can create their own credit report and get their first credit score in a matter of minutes? Um It's the first time that the consumer has ever been able to establish a credit score without going into debt. And we think that this product can open up important doors for millions of consumers and we're really proud of it. But most importantly, it allows consumers to start their financial journey on their terms, which is really critical. Yeah, you just mentioned experience go, you know, what's been the impact of it so far? Do you have you have been able to hear from people who have been able to utilize this and how much it's helped them? Sure. We we hear from consumers every single day and it's a really simple process. We designed it to be easy and really approachable. First, the consumers download our free app to enroll in a membership. It's a simple process and we're seeing that it's taking the average consumer about four minutes to complete, uh you simply take a picture of your driver's license or a passport and then you even take a selfie to confirm that you are indeed you So far more than 20,000 consumers have used the product and in our analysis about 91% of consumers with no credit history are getting a score for the very first time. And that average score is a 665, which is a really great starting position. Absolutely Jeff, we know the credit score and everybody's credit score is incredibly important. What advice maybe do you have consumers out there who might be concerned about their credit or they just don't even know where to begin here? Sure, well in times like these um there's a lot of uncertainty and strain that consumers are going through and it's really important for consumers to be proactive in managing their financial lives. And we offer a whole host of tools including Experience Go, that allow consumers to take control. This journey started for us a few years back when we launched experience boost, which is a really relevant product right now. It allows consumers to get credit for their positive payment history across things like the utility payments or even streaming services. It's also a free service and it instantly improves your credit score. More than nine million consumers are using it today. And nearly 70%, about two thirds of those consumers are getting an instant increase in their credit score. Since we've launched experience boost, we've added more than 80 million points to consumers. Credit scores through the platform. Oh my God, that's amazing, Jeff. And look, we know inflation and interest rates are on the rise, especially potentially next month depending on what happens with the Fed meeting. So how else can consumers protect their financial health during these really tough times right now? Well, it's it's important to remember that better credit means more savings and that can provide access to better products and better interest rates. But it also again opens doors to important milestones that a consumer might have in their life. Um We want to help consumers in as many parts of their financial life as possible. We want to help them save money. Um if you haven't looked at your auto insurance as an example, you probably could find some savings there and we just launched a free new product that allows consumers to save money on their auto insurance. We compare multiple options and the average consumer saving about $900 a year. It's a great option for anybody who's not confident that they've got the best insurance rates or policy and it takes all the hassle out of what is a really confusing process. Absolutely, Jeff, thank you so much for your advice and helping break all this down for us, Jeff softly, is the president of direct to Consumer over at Experience. And guys Experience is committed to bringing financial power to everybody visit experience dot com to learn more