Portfolio Monitor Details

Product Description and Features

Portfolio Monitor is an online account management system that enables you to monitor your customers' credit worthiness and alerts you whenever a significant negative item is reported on the business or the owner/guarantor of that business. Significant changes include new derogatory comments from creditors, collection agency reporting, legal filings, tax liens, bankruptcy, or negative payment behavior. There are two basic types of monitoring -– Portfolio-based and Inquiry-based.
 

1. Portfolio-based Monitoring

Portfolio-based monitoring is the most common form of monitoring as it provides broad coverage over your entire accounts receivable file as a Data Contributor to Experian.
 

As a Non-Contributor, Experian can still monitor accounts that you select by supplying a list of your customer names and addresses. Only business entities that match a record in the Experian database qualify for monitoring.
 

Business Owner monitoring is only available to data contributors. Monitoring business owners provides the added advantage of filtering through unique credit characteristics on the individual. FCRA regulations require us to ensure that only business owners or guarantors can be monitored that have an open business account with you, or a closed account with an outstanding balance.
 

2. Inquiry-based Monitoring

Inquiry-based monitoring is designed to provide coverage only on businesses you have ordered online Experian credit reports for. Whether a single business or group of businesses, Experian provides full coverage of any significant negative change and then sends you immediate warnings on those businesses. An inquired upon businesses is monitored for a 12 month period from the date you order the credit report.
 

Portfolio Monitor Warning Types

Business Accounts:

Portfolio Monitor on business accounts return warnings based on four categories of credit characteristics. These types of warnings include:
 

  1. Legal warnings - new public records including bankruptcies, tax liens, judgments.
  2. Payment warnings - increasingly late payments on those customer accounts that have a current and prior month DBT (Days Beyond Terms) significantly higher than the six month historical range for that account, or... negative changes in the your customer's payment behavior to a point that exceeds 70% of other businesses in that industry.
  3. Derogatory warnings - tradelines reported by a Collection agency. Any new trade line where more than 50% of the balance is greater than 61 DBT. Negative payment comments reported by other creditors (see below).

 
Comment Codes that can drive a Derogatory warning include:

  • Repossession
  • Write – Off
  • Foreclosure
  • Unpaid Collection
  • Skip Account – Cannot Locate
  • Services Disconnected
  • Legal
  • Bond Default
  • Bankruptcy
  • Holding Orders
  • Lease Defaults
  • Returned Checks
  • Credit Privileges Withdrawn
  • Adverse Trend
  • Non Sufficient Funds
  • Refused Further Credit
  • Collection Account
  • Credit Withdrawn
  • UCC warnings are optional warnings that include UCC release and satisfaction information

 

Business Owner / Guarantor Accounts:

Business Owner/Guarantor warnings are FCRA regulated. FCRA requires Experian to ensure that only business owners or guarantors from current commercial accounts, or closed accounts with balances are monitored. To initiate Portfolio Monitor on Owner/Guarantor accounts, you must submit a separate file of owner/guarantor names along with the associated business accounts (showing an open account or closed account with a balance). In order to ensure FCRA compliance, updated Owner/Guarantor files should be submitted to Experian by the last Thursday of every month. Business Owner/Guarantor warnings are generated by any of the following reported on the Owner/Guarantor's personal credit:
 

  • Bankruptcy
  • Lien
  • Civil Action
  • Collection
  • Repossession
  • Foreclosure
  • Voluntary Surrender
  • Charge off
  • Delinquent Account
  • New Loan
  • New Inquiry
  • New Lease
  • New Business Loan
  • New Business Loan inquiry
  • Stolen/Lost Credit Card
  • Bank/Credit Card over credit limit
  • Change of Address
  • Skip Cannot locate address

 

Cool-Off Period

Owner/Guarantor notices have a 90 day cool-off period. For example, if a Charge-off Warning was generated today for business owner John Doe, you will not receive another Charge-off Warning for John Doe until 90 days.
 

Schedule of Updates

Business warnings are updated on a weekly basis — every Tuesday morning. Business Bankruptcies and Owner/Guarantor warnings are updated on a daily basis. We encourage you to frequently browse the Warning List for the current week and the previous week – referred to as the rolling two week warning list — and the list for the entire month.
 

System Access

Portfolio Monitor is available over the Web through BizApps and CPU-CPU connection. Email notifications are sent to you whenever new warnings are triggered from your portfolio. Up to five (5) email recipients can be added per Experian Subscriber Number. The warning list and warning detail reports can be retrieved by logging on to Experian through our website.

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