Jan 13, 2005 - GUS, marketer to the world and parent company of Experian released their Third Quarter Report.

John Peace, Group Chief Executive of GUS, said: “Despite a challenging retail environment, Argos again outperformed its market, with sales up 6% and gross margin slightly ahead. Experian achieved a record quarter for growth, with an exceptional increase in sales of 30% in North America. Against this background, we remain comfortable with expectations for the Group for the full year.”

Wow, 30% increase, Experian has certainly done well at bilking the American public and by providing inaccurate credit reports to businesses and consumers.

The report went on to say,

"In dollars, Experian North America sales growth from continuing activities accelerated to 30% in the third quarter. Corporate acquisitions, most of which were completed in the second half of the last financial year, accounted for 13% of this. Exceptional growth was delivered by Consumer Direct and by MetaReward, its Internet lead-generation business acquired in November 2003. The latter had an outstanding quarter, undertaking some large, but lower margin, client projects."

Humm..the quarter undertook lower margin clients? One can only image what their profit margin would of been without them - possibly 50%? And what the heck is "Consumer Direct" and "MetaReward" -- a lead generation business? 

We thought the FCRA was clear that credit bureau's were NOT to sell consumer information. Congressmen are you reading this?  The fourth point that you - Congress - found in establishing the Fair Credit Reporting Act was,

"There is a need to insure that consumer reporting agencies exercise their grave responsibilities with fairness, impartiality, and a respect for the consumer's right to privacy."

HA! In case you don't know marketing lingo, lead-generation businesses provides NO privacy to consumers.

Here is one of the major 3 CRA's selling our personal information.  You want to bet that they all are selling it? They obviously found a way around the FTC vs TU decision. That's were the Federal Trade Commission ordered Trans Union Corporation to stop selling consumer reports in the form of target marketing lists to marketers who lack an authorized purpose for receiving them under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). But enough about history.

The part of GUS' report that we haven't quite figured out is this statement,

"The first phase of the roll-out of the free credit report service, as required under the FACT Act, took effect from 1 December 2004. The planned cost recovery charge, initially at half its final level, contributed around 1% to total sales in the quarter." 

What!!??  Free credit reports contributed to total sales? How does that work?

Experian, along with TransUnion and Equifax, whinned to Congress that providing free annual credit reports nationwide would cause a financial hardship.  Obviously, with an INCREASE in sales by 30%, those statements don't ring true.  FTC are you reading this? Knock-knock, is anyone at home?

It's bad enough that all this money from the U.S. is being funneled out to the United Kingdom, but do we really have to give them all our personal and private information too?

To read GUS' complete report, click here.

In case anyone is wondering what GUS stands for it's "The Great Univeral Stores."

About Experian Consumer Direct

Experian Consumer Direct^SM delivers the Internet’s premier credit products and services to help consumers better manage their financial lives. Its three-bureau report provides consumers instant access to their complete credit history from their Experian, Equifax and TransUnion files. Experian Consumer Direct’s Internet sites include FreeCreditReport.com, ConsumerInfo.com, CreditExpert.com and CreditMatters.com. The company delivered more than 1.5 million scores in 2002 and currently, more than 1.6 million members belong to its credit monitoring service. Experian Consumer Direct has established integrated co-branded partnerships with Yahoo!, Microsoft, EarthLink, LendingTree, Quicken, E-LOAN, and E*TRADE Group. The company is part of GUS plc (London Stock Exchange: GUS.L).

To learn more about MetaReward, click here.