Equifax Will Offer Free Credit Locks for Life, New CEO Says

The service will be introduced by Jan. 31, Chief Executive Officer Paulino do Rego Barros Jr. wrote in a Wall Street Journal op-ed Wednesday, a day after taking the helm. The company will also extend the sign-up period for TrustedID Premier, the free credit-monitoring service it’s offering all U.S. consumers, he said.

“The service we are developing will let consumers easily lock and unlock access to their Equifax credit files,” Barros wrote. “You will be able to do this at will. It will be reliable, safe and simple. Most significantly, the service will be offered free, for life.”

Equifax’s free services are likely to hit fees at its global consumer solutions unit. That division produced $402.6 million in revenue in 2016, or 13 percent of the company’s total, in part from monitoring products such as Equifax Complete, ID Patrol, Credit Watch and Score Watch. The unit also sells credit information to resellers who offer their own monitoring services to individuals.

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