Equifax consumer-credit records (restricted access)

Restricted individual-level data: not exercised here

This is restricted Equifax consumer-credit microdata (personally identifiable in raw form). It is not an off-the-shelf research purchase and not publicly downloadable: it carries no provenance badge because there is no access path we can run here. Researchers reach it only as an anonymized panel under a restricted data agreement (for example through the New York Fed Consumer Credit Panel, or a project-specific Equifax extract). The page documents what the data is and the gotchas; treat it as unverified. This is the honest grade under the institute’s Verified discipline.

Equifax consumer-credit records are individual-level credit-bureau data: monthly balances, delinquency, credit scores, and account types across a consumer’s tradelines. For research it is usually accessed as an anonymized matched panel (the FRBNY Consumer Credit Panel is one standing example). Equifax also offers employment and income verification built on payroll data (its “Work Number” product), which links credit outcomes to labor-market outcomes. A paper we distill uses both: Di Maggio, Kalda & Yao use an anonymized Equifax credit-bureau panel for monthly balances, delinquency, scores, and account types, and Equifax payroll-based employment/income verification (5,000-plus U.S. firms) for monthly earnings, hours, and employer, to study student-debt relief.

• Cost: not an off-the-shelf research purchase. Restricted-access individual microdata.
• Source: Equifax (consumer credit-bureau records; payroll-based income verification).
• Coverage: consumers with a credit file (effectively most U.S. adults with credit history), monthly; the income-verification product covers only employees of contributing employers.

Access (restricted)

• No public download; PII in raw form. Raw credit records are personally identifiable and cannot be posted; research uses anonymized, matched extracts.
• Through a restricted data agreement. Access is via a standing anonymized panel (for example the FRBNY Consumer Credit Panel) or a project-specific Equifax agreement, under strict privacy terms.

Gotchas (the ones that bite pipelines)

These are the failure modes to expect; they are documented, not verified here.

• Only the credit-visible population. People with thin or no credit files are under-represented or absent; the panel is not the whole adult population. Do not generalize to the unbanked or credit-invisible.
• Bureau-specific coverage. A consumer’s tradelines appear only if the lender reports to Equifax; balances and accounts can differ across bureaus. Do not treat one bureau as the complete liability picture.
• Scores and account types follow vendor definitions. Credit scores and account-type codes are Equifax constructs that change over time; a score is not a fixed cross-vintage concept. Pin the score model and codebook.
• Income verification is selected and partial. The payroll-based income data covers only employees of contributing employers, so it is a non-random slice of workers; absence of income is not unemployment. Treat coverage carefully.
• Anonymized matching introduces error. Linking the credit panel to income or to a treatment population is done on anonymized keys with match error; verify the match rate and its selectivity.
• Not redistributable. Results can be reported but the microdata cannot be shared or re-pulled by others. Plan for non-reproducibility of the raw inputs.

Citation

Cite the source and access route, e.g.: Equifax consumer-credit records (anonymized panel; FRBNY Consumer Credit Panel or project-specific extract), restricted; accessed under data agreement, YYYY-MM-DD; cite the Equifax income-verification product separately if used. State the panel, the sample window, and the score/codebook vintage.