Best Healthcare Equipment Companies To Watch For 2015

Best Healthcare Equipment Companies To Watch For 2015: Equifax Inc. (EFX)

Equifax Inc. collects, organizes, and manages various financial, demographic, employment, and marketing information solutions for businesses and consumers. The company's U.S. Consumer Information Solutions segment provides consumer information services, such as credit information, credit scoring, credit modeling, locate, fraud detection and prevention, identity verification, and other consulting services; mortgage loan origination information, appraisal, title, and closing services; consumer financial marketing services; and identity management services. Its International segment provides information services products, which include consumer and commercial services, such as credit and financial information, and credit scoring and modeling services; and credit and other marketing products and services. The company's Workforce Solutions segment offers employment, income, and social security number verification services, as well as employment tax and talent management servi ces. Its North America Personal Solutions segment sells credit information, credit monitoring, and identity theft protection products directly to consumers through the Internet and hard-copy formats. The company's North America Commercial Solutions segment offers commercial products and services comprising business credit and demographic information, credit scores, and portfolio analytics, which are derived from its databases of business credit, financial, and demographic information. It serves customers in financial services, mortgage, human resources, consumer, commercial, telecommunications, retail, automotive, utilities, brokerage, healthcare, and insurance industries; and state and federal governments. The company has operations in Argentina, Canada, Chile, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Honduras, Paraguay, Peru, Portugal, Spain, the Unite! d Kingdom, Uruguay, the United States, and the Republic of Ireland. Equifax Inc. was founded in 1899 and is headquartered in Atl a nta, Georgia.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By WWW.DAILYFINANCE.COM]

  Rogelio V. Solis/APMississippi Attorney General Jim Hood, speaking to a business group in Jackson, Miss., in October 2012. WASHINGTON -- Mississippi has sued credit reporting giant Experian (EXPR), alleging sweeping errors in the company's data and routine violations of consumer protection laws. Mississippi's action -- and a previously unreported multistate investigation of credit bureaus led by Ohio -- represent a significant new legal challenge to the industry. Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood's complaint against Experian Information Solutions was filed without fanfare last month in a Biloxi state courthouse and transferred to Mississippi federal court late last week. The lawsuit accuses Experian of knowingly including error-riddled data in the credit files of millions of Americans, jeopardizing their ability to obtain loans, employment-related background checks and sensitive government security clearances. Experian has even wrongly reported that consumers are on a federal terrorism watch list, the lawsuit said. Both Experian and a spokesman for its trade group, the Consumer Data Industry Association, declined to discuss the litigation or related questions about the quality of the company's data. Experian warned investors earlier this year that the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and its British counterpart were regulatory agencies responsible for protecting consumers and said, "It remains uncertain how these bodies may affect our credit and consumer business processes and business models in the future." Experian told investors that, to the best of its knowledge, it complies with data protection requirements, but it warned that, "We might fail to comply with international, federal, regional, provincial, state or other jurisdictional regulations, due to the! ir comple! xity, frequent changes or inconsistent application and interpretation." Despite the errors, the Mississippi lawsuit said, Experian provides no straightforward way for consumers

• [By U.S. News]

  Alamy Everyone makes mistakes and credit bureaus are no exception. In fact, a Federal Trade Commission study last year found that one in four consumer credit reports contain errors -- these include everything from minor mistakes to outrageous oversights. It's important to know what to look for when you're checking for mistakes in your credit reports. There are three types: identity errors, incorrect account details and fraudulent accounts. 1. Identity errors. The three major credit bureaus are Equifax (EFX), Experian and TransUnion. Each bureau maintains its own database of consumer data, including personal information, account information and payment history. This information is included in your credit reports. From time to time, a credit bureau -- or all three -- will get some information wrong. Some of these errors are minor. For instance, one bureau might have your street address incorrect. It's annoying, but it won't hurt your credit. Other times, it's a more serious error: Your name could become mixed up with someone else's, and you could begin seeing some of his accounts on your credit report. This will affect your credit either positively or negatively, depending on his payment history. 2. Incorrect account details. Sometimes the bank or lender providing information about your accounts to the credit bureaus gets things wrong. On the other hand, the credit bureau could incorrectly process the information provided. For instance, your credit card could be displaying the wrong credit limit, your mortgage might have the incorrect origination date or your auto loan could show as "open" when it's clearly been closed. 3. Fraudulent accounts. This is the most serious error out there, since it means someone has used your identity -- including your name, Social Security number and oth! er person! al data -- to open and begin using an account. If there's a line of credit on your credit report that you didn't open, you'll want to move quickly to ensure that th

• [By U.S. News]

  Alamy Is the National Security Agency really tapping your phone calls and reading your email? If they are -- in spite of the invasion of privacy concerns -- the truth is, it's probably some pretty boring stuff they're snooping in on: "Want to meet for lunch?" "Justin Bieber got arrested?" "Who's the new guy in accounting?" That sort of stuff. The real data that matters is much more personal. Lenders use it, and you should know about it. It's your hidden credit score. Lenders Easing Credit Standards After years of suffering, consumer credit is gaining giant momentum. Crawling out from the rubble of recession, lenders are looking to make deals. The "too big to fail" banks have been mopping up lingering legal messes, and the mortgage industry is still in recovery. But consumer-focused lenders have been easing credit standards and swimming downstream to gain retail customers and pump up profit margins. These mostly smaller lenders are finding a good deal of opportunity with consumers who have less-than-perfect credit. But they don't depend solely on your traditional credit score. They need more than that. Subprime Time The term "subprime" has become synonymous with the U.S. financial crisis of 2008. Tied to the manic mortgage industry that fueled the economy in the early 2000s, subprime loans were packaged as derivative investments and ultimately caused the collapse of the house of cards that was the American economy. But subprime lending -- issuing loans to consumers with FICO credit scores of 660 or below -- is making a comeback. And rather than causing concern for another crisis, it's helping credit-critical consumers rebound from the recession. It's also feeding the heat of a resurgent automobile industry. The credit bureau Equifax (EFX) reports that auto loan volume was at an eight-year high la! st year, ! and nearly a third of those loans were issued to subprime borrowers. For Americans with complicated credit histories, the opportunity for a financial

• [By Keith Speights]

  Two other contractors also testified before the committee. Equifax (NYSE: EFX  ) corporate counsel Lynn Spellecy said that her firm had only a limited role in the overall Obamacare exchange system and that the company's software worked properly. Serco's John Lau emphasized that his company didn't work on the website at all. Serco provides eligibility support services that support processing of paper applications.

source from Top Stocks For 2015:http://www.topstocksblog.com/best-healthcare-equipment-companies-to-watch-for-2015.html