Before: Experian began making credit reports available over the Internet for $8 at www.experian.com/product/consumer/online.html.

After: A few days later, Experian was forced to shut down the service indefinitely due to a technical glitch which sent credit reports to the wrong users.

The good news. Experian was the first of the big three credit bureaus to offer online access to credit reports at www.experian.com. The (really) bad news. They were forced to shut down the service after only a few days due to a highly embarrassing technical glitch that misdirected credit reports to the wrong online requester. The online credit reports do not contain full account numbers so the glitch isn’t as bad as you might of have thought. Naturally it made headlines around the country throwing more cold water on the coals of electronic commerce.

The silver lining in all this? A small start-up company, QSpace www.qspace.com, is doing what Experian tried to do, but in a more secure fashion using VeriSign’s class 2 digital certificates to verify user identity. QSpace had been advertising a $7.50 special for the digital certificate (good for one year) and credit report (with subsequent purchases costing $3). But with Experian’s temporary exit, QSpace upped the price to $12 (and $5 for credit report reorders). QSpace says they were merely passing on an increase in the wholesale cost of digital certificates from VeriSign (which also retails digital certificates for $19.95).

QSpace’s version of “Netscape Now.” Click on the button to link to the Internet Credit Report order form.

QSpace provides a “free” copy of your credit bureau report online, but you have to buy a VeriSign class II digital certificate for $12.

QSpace delivers online credit reports (from Experian’s database) under the trademarked name Internet Credit Report. Users must have a class II digital ID from Verisign for authentication. You earn a free credit report by buying the digital ID online through Experian. QSpace has posted an excellent FAQ on credit at www.qspace.com/questions/faq_all.html.  Privately held QSpace began operations in Oakland, CA in August 1996.
Contacts: I.O.A. Eze is Co-Founder & President; Arash Saffarnia is Co-Founder & CTO; Peter C. Balas is Founding Investor, 510.893.1085.