Ian Cohen, CEO

Credit.com

Describe Your Role and Responsibilities.

Credit.com is about educating consumers and matching them to the best product that will help them save money or help them get out of debt, or whatever their problem may be.

What are Some of Your Biggest Challenges?

The internet is hard, and the internet is hard for people who are online and who are offline. It’s a fact that over 85% of people now shop online. And, similar to special effects in movies, these people are always looking for more and more targeting, and more and more specific help targeted to just them. You see it on Facebook, you see it on Twitter.  But, for financial services, which is our industry, it’s particularly hard because you’re not just dealing with someone not just liking or not liking something, you’re dealing with someone having to solve a real problem with real monetary issues around it. If they don’t get that level of targeting and individualism, they don’t respond. And, that’s the biggest challenge – engaging consumers around their actual data.

Which Experian Solutions Have You Implemented?

Experian has stepped up and given us access to Premium Prequalification. It’s a way for us to give data back to the consumer. Show them exactly where they stand in their financial lives, and then match them to a product that they’re much, much more likely to get qualified for, a product that will save them more money.

Why Did You Choose to Work With Experian?

The world of data exchange is changing. And, I think data has changed because it has become very decentralized. And, there is the old way of doing it, and the new way of doing it. Experian has one of the richest data sets out there. And they have chosen to step up and share that data set with consumers. By doing that, they’re empowering the consumer with the data they need to make smart decisions. That’s what it’s about.

The partnership with Experian has been great. I mean, a lot of people say it’s a good partnership. This has been spectacular. We came to them a year ago with a proposal that said lets share data with consumers, and here’s how it’s actually going to lead to better results for financial institutions, and here’s how we can all pay for it. They’ve actually stepped up and built a whole supportive product around this proposal and it gives data back to the consumers and allows them to make excellent decisions. It’s been great.

I think the two or three words I would use to define Experian, at least in the relationship I’ve had with them are – they are extremely creative, fast and complementary to our business.