In December we communicated the intention of the three repositories (Equifax, Experian and TransUnion) to begin charging for re-issue/secondary use credit reports.   At that time ARC was unaware how much those charges were and how they would be applied.  As of the end of last week, we have been formally notified of those charges from each of the repositories.  Additionally, ARC has started earlier this year to comply with the Secondary Re-issue Usage/Reporting requirements and have been in compliance with the bureaus’ requests for these reports.

Each repository has taken a slightly different approach in dealing with charging for secondary re-issues.  Experian has added a percentage surcharge to all credit reports regardless of whether there is a secondary re-issue, while Equifax and TransUnion have agreed to base their charges on an occurrence by occurrence basis.   For this reason it has taken us a few days to perform some analysis in deciding the true impact on ARC and its clients.

Furthermore Experian has decided to begin charging ARC as of February 2007, while Equifax and TransUnion have an effective date of April 2007.  We are frankly surprised by Experian’s action and will not reciprocate this action to our clients.

Beginning April 1^st 2007 there will be a secondary re-issue charge of $4.50 ($1.50 per bureau) for a single borrower or $9.00 ($3.00 per bureau) for joint borrowers for each re-issue occurrence.  This charge occurs when a credit report is reissued to a different end user (lender) than when the report was originally ordered.

Many of your trade associations, along with NCRA continue to press the repositories into re-thinking their policy and their surcharges.  We will keep you aware of any changes in policy or surcharges.

Thank you for your continued support.