Host Bryn Griffiths explores the dynamic world of credit reporting with two experts from Equifax, a global leader in data analytics and credit information. Recorded at the National Credit Conference in Jasper, Alberta, today’s discussion features Ken Malin, a ten-year veteran of Equifax’s credit groups, and commercial data consultant Kevin Freeland. Together, they shine a spotlight on the evolution of credit management, the critical role of credit scores, and how companies like Equifax and MetCredit are helping Canadians and businesses navigate an ever-changing financial landscape. Whether you’re new to credit or looking to deepen your understanding, this episode offers timely perspectives and practical advice on leveraging credit data for smarter, safer business decisions.
Chapters
00:00 Introduction to Bryn Griffiths and Equifax
00:24 Equifax’s Role in Global Credit Data
00:58 Reinvention and Cultural Change at Equifax
01:58 Changes in Business Practices Post-Pandemic
02:33 Managing Credit Groups During and After COVID
04:15 The Shift to Virtual Business Interactions
06:07 Selling Big Deals via Video Conference
07:23 Equifax’s Specific Role and Data Use
08:32 Personal Stories and Data Privacy in Credit
09:18 The Importance of Financial Literacy for Youth
10:33 Building Credit Early and Its Impact
12:08 Credit Reports and Personal Financial Health
13:19 The Ecosystem of Business Credit
14:29 Teaching Kids About Credit and Math Skills
15:22 The Role of AI and Digital Skills in Future Finance
15:50 Encouraging Responsible Credit Use Among Youth
16:57 Ken Malin on Credit Groups and Industry Collaboration
17:50 The Role of Credit Data in Industry and Risk Management
18:48 The Value of Relationships and Trust in Credit
20:11 Future Challenges in Personal and Business Credit
21:40 Using Data to Support Business and Credit Decisions
24:38 Connecting with Experts for Financial Education
Resources
Equifax Canada Official Website – https://www.equifax.ca
The Wealthy Barber by David Chilton – https://thewealthybarber.com/
A Rich Future, Essential Financial Concepts for Youth by Noah Booth
Credit Safe – https://www.creditsafe.com
Guest links
Ken Malin LinkedIn – https://linkedin.com/in/kenmalin
Kevin Freeland LinkedIn – https://linkedin.com/in/kevinfreeland
Episode Transcript
Bryn Griffiths [00:00:02]:
This is overdue advice. The podcast about how and why debt collection works for your business brought to you by MetCredit.
Bryn Griffiths [00:00:13]:
My name is Bryn Griffiths. The world of credit and credit collection is always changing. Mostly because the world is always on the move too. Today we’re focusing in on a valuable partner for MetCredit called Equifax. They’re a trusted global leader in data analytics and technologies to but most people know them for their expertise in credit reporting. They specialize in delivering trends in credit risk, debt and delinquencies from all around the world. This past spring we attended the National Credit Conference in Jasper, Alberta and we were able to catch up to Ken Malan who’s a 10 year veteran managing credit groups for Equifax out of Montreal and Kevin Freeland who is a commercial data and analytics consultant for Equifax. Biggest part of today’s episode is credit score and the importance of staying on top of things and how companies like Equifax and Medcredit can help you.
Bryn Griffiths [00:01:00]:
But first things first, you need great people from great companies sharing great perspectives.
Kevin Freeland [00:01:06]:
Equifax is a company that’s dynamic. Status quo is not an option. We are a hundred year old company in Canada and so we’re always reinventing, we’re always rebuilding, we’re always retooling because the market necessitates that. We’re an S and P 500 so we have a lot of attention on us. You know, we have a performance responsibility to our shareholders. And so I’ve had to reinvent myself probably 15 times in those 42 years. The customer’s needs have changed, technology changes, we change, our management. Change with management is a cultural change and you can either fight it or you embrace it and say, okay, who am I? What do I learn? What am I going to learn today? And take that forward.
Bryn Griffiths [00:01:44]:
Okay, so when, when I first jumped into this, we were just coming out of the pandemic and you know the, we talked about the fact. Let’s not talk about the pandemic. Let’s, let’s not worry about that. However, here we are now, six years through this, I’ve noticed some remarkable change in the way the world does business, the way people have to live their lives. It’s like we were. There was an awakening that happened there. But what about from an Equifax standpoint? Who wants to pick this one up? How much has changed in the last six years on the way things have been done?
Kevin Freeland [00:02:12]:
Immense, actually. Ken, take this away because you shared a good observation about the cathartic change pre, post Covid budgets, et cetera.
Ken Malin [00:02:20]:
Yeah. Well, in terms of Equifax credit groups, I can, I can just give you a little bit of an idea. So I manage right now the Equifax credit group. So we run 50 different credit groups every month from all different business segments. Could be from steel, construction, heating and plumbing, food, men’s apparel, women’s apparel. The list goes on and on and on. Right. So prior, prior to the pandemic.
Ken Malin [00:02:43]:
So I took on, in kind of in the middle of the pandemic, the role and the credit groups were mostly done in person, right. So it was, it was a chance for people that deal in a specific credit segment to come together. Credit managers like we have here today at the national conference, and for them to come and exchange and, and, and to kind of get some information to help them make better credit risk decisions when they go back to their, to their, to their jobs. And a lot of that stuff was done in person. And, and people love to get out of the office because back then, mostly five days a week. So any opportunity to get out and have a, have a free lunch and to get together with colleagues maybe on a Thursday afternoon or Friday afternoon, extend your weekend. Yeah, it was there, right? And then bang, we had the pandemic. And everybody kind of, you know, home base working, you know, and kind of not, not slowly, I guess, changing the way they wanted to do business.
Ken Malin [00:03:39]:
And, and, you know, either putting your camera on or not putting your camera on. So being in a meeting, you could be listening or you may not be listening, right? So that was the kind of scenario that we were going through. And then bang, we came out of the pandemic. And that’s when I really took on credit groups. Kevin was running them prior to that, so he was my kind of like, mentor going into this. He kind of warned me about the shift and how hard it would be to really, number one, keep the engagement of people wanting to come meet face to face, right. And have that networking opportunity like we’re doing today at the national conference. Like, there’s no better way than to meet somebody in person.
Ken Malin [00:04:17]:
One of my coordinators just popped into the room before that. Kevin brought, right. And I had. I’ve only met him on camera. I’ve only met him through the phone. And then I. He’s here and I shake his hand and I feel like hugging him. And it just gives such a different vibe when you’re.
Ken Malin [00:04:30]:
Especially for me, I’m a people person and I And I like that, that interaction. Right. So now our credit groups, we’re trying, we’re struggling a little bit to bring that, that element back. Right. Because some people are either new, if you have some new people coming in that I’ve never been part of that one on one thing. It’s kind of hard for them. Like, you know, it’s like this generation, people, they don’t want to talk on the phone, they want to text.
Bryn Griffiths [00:04:53]:
Oh yeah, absolutely.
Ken Malin [00:04:55]:
So the dynamic has changed and we’re, we’re, we want to bring more, but it’s just again to break that Covid shock and, and or newbies to the game to say, hey, the better way to do things is actually to come together once in a while and, and have that, that, that, you know, that inter, that exchange together. And so yeah, yeah.
Bryn Griffiths [00:05:14]:
And Kevin, we, we just talked about reinvention. It’s one thing for us to do it, but then you have to watch companies do it. And I’m amazed at how resilient we’ve all been over the last six years. It excites me to when I see how companies have been able to go from Point A in 2020 to Point B now in 2026.
Kevin Freeland [00:05:32]:
Well, that’s a couple interesting commentary. So number one, when Covid hit, a lot of our clients were forced to work at home. You know, office shut down. And a lot of them didn’t have laptops, they didn’t have video cameras. And so there’s this chaos for a period of time where they’re trying to figure out I got to get set up in a home office.
Bryn Griffiths [00:05:47]:
Yeah.
Bryn Griffiths [00:05:48]:
So they got over that hump. But something else changed too, and that is we started business doesn’t stop. And we ended up doing all of our sales calls either over the telephone and majority of probably video conferencing. Then people at different platforms, they’ve matured. So there was some hiccups trying to get, you know, different compatibility issues. But I ended up selling working with her. We have a strategic partner named Credit Safe and they allow us to sell data globally because they’re a global information company.
Bryn Griffiths [00:06:14]:
Okay.
Kevin Freeland [00:06:14]:
And I ended up selling in the first few months a contract that was $435,000 per year over three years with growth factored in all over a video conference call. And prior to my prior to Covid, I’m old school where you meet in person, you have conversations, you meet the people, you, you’re, you’re sitting live across the table, you do earn lunch. And here I am selling almost a half million dollar contract over video like that with a company down in Mexico. So the flip side is it also changed the mindset where people accepted this as a new medium to transact and it was very profitable. And you also then have to exude trust, integrity, you know what you’re talking about. You have to be very succinct. You have to sharpen your communication skills because people are now viewing you through a screen like a TV program almost. So I had to sharpen, I had to retool, I had to accept the fact that yes, I can sell big deals over a video screen.
Kevin Freeland [00:07:09]:
And it was a, it’s and we still do it. A lot of our calls are with global companies and we’re connected around the world through a screen. So Covid enabled this new way of doing business, which is actually that part’s bigger.
Bryn Griffiths [00:07:20]:
Well, I know when I started podcast creation work back in 2017, nobody knew what it was. And now podcasting, this is how people are finding out and getting all their information. But I want to go down that road. I want you guys at MetCredit, but you go down different paths. Ken, let’s start with you. What is, what is it you’re specifically doing at MetCredit?
Ken Malin [00:07:37]:
Well, I, I just want to, you know, add to that. Yeah, I’m going to you.
Bryn Griffiths [00:07:41]:
Hey, by the way, you guys interrupt each other because I’m sure you do it frequently in a conversation over cold one.
Ken Malin [00:07:46]:
So.
Bryn Griffiths [00:07:46]:
So let me add to the group experience.
Kevin Freeland [00:07:49]:
Let me give a great example. I used to run this dealer group and we had two big watch manufacturer won’t say their names and they were Talking about a 20 year old customer and he was non responsive. And one of the watch company said I’m going to place for a collection. The other one said I’m going to assume this diamond company in the room said you might not want to do that. Everyone what are you talking about? Yeah, they said, well he has, his wife is ready to give birth any day now. You expect a child. He is a two year old with terminal cancer.
Bryn Griffiths [00:08:16]:
Wow.
Kevin Freeland [00:08:17]:
You will not find that on any credit report. And that’s an extreme human, personal, emotional story. But there’s other stories. There’s stories about this guy has a gambling problem, this guy has a cocaine problem, this guy just got divorced. And so again these are things you won’t find on a credit report. But it’s fascinating information. But you have to, we. Ken has to create the environment that’s a safe environment.
Kevin Freeland [00:08:40]:
So he has contractors like that gentleman you saw walk in and they moderate. There’s certain things you can and cannot say to protect us from the Competition Bureau. But that provides that envelope of trust and safeness. So you can talk under a structured construct, if you will. So you’re protected, but you can still have this one on one dialogue. But it’s the personalization that can facilitate with, that brings forth information you can’t get anywhere other than a live person to person conversation.
Bryn Griffiths [00:09:04]:
Sure, absolutely.
Ken Malin [00:09:05]:
And you know, you know, I just, I want to, I just want to say one thing about like Equifax. You know, when I, when I joined, you know, I didn’t know a lot about the credit bureaus. Right. I Knew There was TransUnion, I knew there was Equifax and I knew that you can get your credit file or your credit score. Right. And that’s, you know, we had the keynote speaker today and they were talking about if you said, oh, you’re in credit, it’s either you’re chasing me for money or you’re blocking me from a loan. Right. Type of thing.
Bryn Griffiths [00:09:30]:
Sure.
Ken Malin [00:09:31]:
But I was privileged enough to be asked to run these Equifax Educate sessions. And our slogan at Equifax is helping Canadians live their financial best. And it really resonates with me because I was kind of mentioning, the story before is that when I was like 17, 18 years old coming out of high school, I didn’t know anything about credit. My parents didn’t really teach me about credit. I knew my dad had credit card, I knew he filled up his car with it. He knew he took out the dinner. But I didn’t know anything about repayment and how important it was to establish credit when you’re, when you’re young. So we were giving these last year we gave about 10 sessions to some high schools, graduating students in high schools in the Montreal area.
Ken Malin [00:10:10]:
And it was a basic, what’s credit type of course. Right. And interactive. And it was so nice to see. You know, I went in there scared, saying, oh my God. I remember when I was in grade 11, you know, I’m going to get like spitballed or something, you know, and, and they’re not going to listen to anything about credit. But we kind of made it fun. And I, and I, and one of the things that I kind of resonated with him, I brought up an example, I said, you know, when I was your, I wish I had somebody coming in because, you know, you guys are going to be getting your first credit card soon, which is great.
Ken Malin [00:10:39]:
I go, I said, you all need to get a credit card, but you need to take care of it because you need to establish credit. And then they go, well, why do we need to do that? And I said, well, you can’t do what I did. You know, I had a Canadian Tire card and I was driving 50km with a buddy to get cash on the card, which is the worst thing to do because.
Bryn Griffiths [00:10:54]:
Double shot.
Ken Malin [00:10:55]:
Yeah, Exactly. You’re paying 28% interest on that cash withdrawal and before you know it you have $2,000 in credit card debt that as a student is very hard to get out of. So I was using that as a, where everybody could relate. You know, you want to go get a few beers and you want to have a good night out. But I said what you need to do is really be a good payer, get that credit card, establish your credit. And they were saying, well, why do we need to do that? And I said, well, I go, when you want to go get your first car and you don’t have mom and dad signing for you, they’re going to look at your credit score. Oh, they’re going to look at the credit score. Yeah.
Ken Malin [00:11:24]:
And they’re going to look and see what your history is. So that’s going to enable you. Right. We’re Equifax, we’re enablers. We’re not like those credit demons. We’re enablers. We want to help you get that first car, that first mortgage, that dream house or whatever it is. So I’m very proud to be associated obviously with the credit groups because we’re facilitators there as well.
Ken Malin [00:11:45]:
But from what I’ve done at Equifax, I feel proud when I can talk to somebody about it and put the, you know, put the, I guess the special spin on credit and how, and how we’re, we’re the good, good people.
Kevin Freeland [00:11:57]:
So. Yeah, and interesting story as well. So a lot people, they don’t understand the correlation between your credit score and your ability to get credit.
Ken Malin [00:12:03]:
Yeah.
Bryn Griffiths [00:12:03]:
Because when you’re younger a lot of you aren’t thinking that forward ahead, you know, can’t give you an example. And I had this friend who knew I worked for, for Equifax back in the day and he met the right, he was a bit of a bad actor, he owned a tire shop, own business and he found the right girl finally and she got pregnant and they were going to get married and they found the perfect house. And he, the reason he called me was because he had a Bay credit card and it was about $300, balance. And he went, oh screw you, what are you going to do? And he got placed for a collection and a collection on your file is like cancer. You know, it just shuts down the Berlin Wall when people see their credit card.
Bryn Griffiths [00:12:35]:
Yes.
Kevin Freeland [00:12:35]:
And so he couldn’t get a mortgage with, with the perfect girl getting married and he, he had to get her dad to co sign for the mortgage for his daughter that was pregnant. You know, so like talk about indoctrination into the importance. And now his credit score is perfect. But, but people don’t know. I should also clarify for anyone that might be listening doesn’t understand the whole scope of Equifax. We provide consumer credit reports on individuals and we provide the same thing on the commercial side. We provide credit information on companies. So when you walk into a store, walk into a mall, most times nothing you see is paid for.
Kevin Freeland [00:13:07]:
It’s the product is brought. In general, there’s different variations, but generally it’s net 30 day terms. Almost like your credit card statement, you pay every 30 days. Right. So when you walk into a store, nothing’s paid for. And the expectation is in 30 days they will pay for the clothing, for the this, for the that. And so our information helps companies understand. When I sell my goods and they go out the door on the truck and in the store, will I get my money? In simplest terms, that what we do and same thing as individuals.
Kevin Freeland [00:13:31]:
Will they pay me if I give you a loan?
Bryn Griffiths [00:13:32]:
This is the best. My favorite part of doing this podcast is that sometimes we just, we turn the car off the freeway for a minute. I did an episode not long ago with a young student, Dalhousie University, who’d written a book that Amazon actually picked up. And he did it at age 17 and he talked about how important it is to learn basic, not smart math as I called it when I was going through school, but math that would be applicable to functioning in the real world. And he said most kids in grade 10, 11 and 12 have no clue on how to get a mortgage, no clue on how to get a credit card. Maintain it. He says we’re doing a lousy job of teaching our kids. We teach them so many good things, but the one thing we don’t teach them is basic math that you can use on a daily basis.
Bryn Griffiths [00:14:20]:
So now I’m going to ask you two guys whether or not you think that could we be better in teaching young people at an earlier age how to do things. I know, I know your answer is going to be but it blew me away. So if you get a chance to go back and listen to the episode with Noah do. It was great.
Kevin Freeland [00:14:35]:
And I’d actually promote that. And actually there’s a quintessential book by talk about financial literacy. And starting off somewhere, David Chilton, The Wealthy Barber.
Bryn Griffiths [00:14:43]:
He loves that book, by the way, Noah.
Kevin Freeland [00:14:45]:
Well, it’s the simplest of concepts, compounding, but you have to start early. The earlier you start, the greater the compound effect when you get to our age. Right. And it’s. And he actually, David Chilton spoke, he did a second book and he spoke two years ago at this last conference and he was captivating. Not only did he reinforce the lessons from the first book, but he says, parents, the number one thing you can do for your kids today, if you do nothing else, encourage them, push them into learning how AI is going to affect the world, have some AI skills, knowledge, practicability and so on.
Ken Malin [00:15:14]:
I think that … I have two daughters. and one is 21 and one is 18. And obviously I am pushing them to be, I call it credit smart. Um, so they, and I tell them about the pitfalls that I had. And I’m trying to, like any father would like to do, is try to get them to avoid some of those little potholes that, that I hit. Right. That I wish I had given the
Kevin Freeland [00:15:36]:
knowledge you didn’t get.
Ken Malin [00:15:37]:
Exactly.
Bryn Griffiths [00:15:37]:
Can you do it, though?
Kevin Freeland [00:15:38]:
My girls, because I work at Equifax and they’ve heard me hound and pound into them, but they both have credit scores of 850.
Ken Malin [00:15:46]:
Yeah. Wow. And my daughters are in that range as well too. So, and, and, and, and right now, and right now they’re, they’re, they’re kind of abroad a little bit, but their credit card statements come back to the house and I’m not allowed to open them, but I want to open them just to make sure that their balances are…
Bryn Griffiths [00:16:04]:
This comes as no shock to me.
Kevin Freeland [00:16:06]:
Let me share one quick story. When I’ve talked to people and younger people about the importance of your credit score and just, you know, given just the, the quick little version of credit score equals. You get a credit card, you get a car, you get a, you get a house. I say even if you have to collect beer bottles on the side of the highway to make the minimum payment, just make the minimum payment. Because credit reporters design what they’re, it’s actually their psychology behind it. The psychology is they’re looking at a pattern of responsibility. And there’s no better place than your financial responsibility. If you’re responsible financially, you’re More likely to fix the roof if it leaks as soon as it starts leaking.
Kevin Freeland [00:16:42]:
If you’re irresponsible financially, that finds its way through other aspects of your life, you’re more apt to let the roof collapse before you address it.
Bryn Griffiths [00:16:49]:
Get at it.
Kevin Freeland [00:16:50]:
So it’s a pattern of responsibility. And so making that payment so you don’t show one payment late is so critical and it’s easy to do. Just making the minimum payment. That’s the biggest lesson.
Bryn Griffiths [00:17:01]:
Okay, now let’s get down to. Because, man, we could talk all day, I’m loving this. But let’s talk about the specifics of your job. We’ll start with you, Ken. So what, what’s your department all about?
Ken Malin [00:17:12]:
Okay, so we’ve already touched on it a little bit. So we run the Equifax credit groups across Canada. So here today we have a lot of the members from our Equifax credit group at the national conference. It involves mostly credit managers, right, that are basically, are the gatekeepers at, at businesses across Canada. Suppliers, we call them industry suppliers because they are supplying into the, into the major industries in Canada. So if you take a electrical supplier, right, they’re supplying, let’s say a condo development that’s going up. You need wiring, you need light switch, you need everything, right, to, to build that condo, right? So we have those suppliers to come to a group meeting, right, that are supplying the industry and they’ll come into the, into the meeting and like Kevin said, instead of anybody can pull a business credit report. You’re going to see the financial health of a business that you’re basically lending money to because they come in and they, they sign a credit application and you’re basically giving them a pot of money that they can buy product from.
Ken Malin [00:18:12]:
And like Kevin said before, until the, until that, let’s say that condo, Dominion Development, the, the, the owner of it pays the, pays the contractors that suppliers, they don’t get paid. That’s, that’s kind of that, that ecosystem. So the specialty of our, of our, our credit groups is that we bring the people together and it’s an exchange, right? It’s, it’s to say, okay, are you dealing with ABC Company and are they good payers with you? And they go, yeah, they’re fantastic payers. It might be a bit slow, but they’ve never done, they’ve never not paid us. They, we’ve never had to seize a shipment or put a lien on their, on their, on their equipment. So it’s to get that, that information that you’re not going to get outside of that credit ecosystem at Equifax. It’s a safe, secure place for these credit managers to come.
Bryn Griffiths [00:18:58]:
Right.
Ken Malin [00:18:59]:
They can’t, they can’t bring that information out to salespeople. That’s a no, no by laws to support that. Yeah. And we have the rules and regulations and we monitor that secure environment and, and you know, we get. I have credit managers that come to me and say if it wasn’t for this credit meeting man, we would have like a steel company, right. We would have let that inventory go out the door and it was gone because it was fraud. Yeah, right. It was being shipped to a condominium development with a false address.
Ken Malin [00:19:25]:
And then the product’s gone and that million dollars is gone. So it’s, and it’s about relationships, right? It’s. We talk about that, we talk about loyalty and these, these guys that are coming, these guys and gals that are coming to our credit groups, they’ve been together for sometimes like 25 years. They know each other like brothers and sisters and family. So it’s a, it’s a great way to help you, you know, de risk your credit decisions and also create a network within your industry.
Kevin Freeland [00:19:50]:
It’s a layered approach to data because it different data. And what’s interesting in the example he gave with the condo is that it’s. The currency is product, the currency is wire, the currency is lights and so on. So it’s. There’s still lending if you will. If you put it through that lens, right? Just the currency is different.
Bryn Griffiths [00:20:06]:
Gotta ask this because personal credit situations seem to be talked about so much in the media, which I’m part of. I guess I’m partly blame on this. But Kevin, when you take a look at where we’re going with, with people’s personal finances, are you a little nervous over the next few years or is this a new challenge that you gotta deal with?
Ken Malin [00:20:24]:
It’s.
Kevin Freeland [00:20:24]:
Everything changes, right? There’s different cycles. We haven’t seen anything like what’s going on in politics in years. So there’s a lot of unknowns.
Bryn Griffiths [00:20:33]:
Right.
Kevin Freeland [00:20:34]:
But some of the things I can share that observations that we’ve seen. So we did a study on business owners of SMB. Small mid sized businesses. Their credit utilization is 20% higher than non business owner Canadians and double the amount of facilities that they use for that personal finance. Okay. So what we’re seeing is this greater emphasis put on the people. Keep in mind all companies are run by people, right? They’re not just, it’s not a Company which is like this, this block, there’s people running it. But when you see these, these, these small mid sized businesses, they’re, they’re using personal, they’re using HELOCs, a home equity line of credit, they’re using personal credit cards.
Kevin Freeland [00:21:11]:
And we’re now looking to blend our consumer and commercial world together with these new insights to share, to show, to leverage our capabilities, show this impact of personal debt being used to drive business. So now people are looking, they’re scrutinizing this, the business owner’s personal file with this new understanding to say if he’s now looking to potentially fail if he’s, if his credit scores are tanking, if he says his bankruptcy rating is higher, this has an impact on his business. So these are the kind of insights that we do. And I’m a, my title is I’m a commercial data analyst consultant. So I support the sales reps bringing in, bringing in data and analytics, using data to build bigger pictures, greater insights because we find data is really a driving force in business today.
Bryn Griffiths [00:21:54]:
How do you work with a group like MetCredit for example, because there’s numerous companies across Canada, it just happens to be their podcast. But is it.
Kevin Freeland [00:22:01]:
Oh, I can share that.
Bryn Griffiths [00:22:02]:
Okay, away you go.
Kevin Freeland [00:22:04]:
So collection agencies ever I would hazard guess that 99% of every collection agency is a customer. And I’ll tell you that a lot of the big agencies and form build agencies like MetCredit. When they have big clients like banks, FIs telcos, they’ll issue RF and they’ll mandate the use of credit data, Equifax data. And some of these agencies, we cycle data every 48, 72 hours, et cetera because they’re looking for, the biggest challenge is locates someone skips. They’re looking for new telephone numbers, new addresses, they’re looking for employers, et cetera to chase them down. So they’re all using our data. They also report their data to us, which goes into our credit reports, which shows up at his group meetings, shows up on our credit reports. So there’s this great big ecosystem of things going on.
Kevin Freeland [00:22:45]:
So that’s just a small piece. So like we’re a beast when you look at all the moving parts. So the challenge is trying to stay relative and wrangling this data the right way.
Ken Malin [00:22:53]:
I was so I would say when I, when I actually started with Equifax I was in the collection side. You know, we did a lot of debt recovery with a lot of our partner agencies and so forth and some of the big clients. So to To Kevin’s point, it’s really about our data and segmenting that data. Right. To you know, if you have your, if you’re looking at cell phone companies, right, you’re trying to track down somebody that didn’t pay their bill, right. You might have a hundred thousand customers or a million customers that you’re trying to get money from. You need to know which ones to go after. So it’s, you know, that, that basically says like, you know, if it’s, you know, if they’re looking at me and they say, well Ken, you know, just forget it.
Ken Malin [00:23:29]:
He doesn’t have the money to pay, you can call him a thousand times, he’s not going to pick up the phone. So we basically help, you know, our customers focus in on where they should be looking. You know, we build propensity to pay models.
Kevin Freeland [00:23:40]:
So when I was a collector, I would look at the file and if it was already 50 collection claims, I’m going to make one or two hard, hard, hard calls and then we’re going to cut bait, recommend legal or close the file. If there was skin on the bone or still meat on the bone, you’re gon with them. And our customers, a lot of the agencies, they’re actually on scorecards. And the scorecards, look at that, compares their performance to other collection agencies that their customer uses.
Bryn Griffiths [00:24:02]:
Wow.
Kevin Freeland [00:24:03]:
And so if for example, I let’s say you’re MetCredit and you get a portfolio from me and I give you a hundred commercial companies to collect against and let’s say three of them are already bankrupt, you have X number of days to identify that and back it out of your results because if you don’t, you that could impact the volume and how much business you get and the quality business you get in the future based on your performance. And so we’re finding agencies are using more of our data on the commercial side as well to identify these no collect accounts and use that to back out of the score.
Bryn Griffiths [00:24:35]:
Hey, before I ask you and we wrap things up here, I just wanted to point out Noah Booth was the young guy who wrote the book. The book is called A Rich Future: Essential Financial Concepts for Youth. Okay. So people need to get a hold of you. Can they get ahold of you? Where do you recommend people reach out to if they are looking for help or anything like that?
Ken Malin [00:24:51]:
That, well, they, they could, they could reach out to me directly. ken.malin@equifax.com you can go check my LinkedIn profile. I’m very responsive. You, you email, you call me, I’m there to help whether, whether you’re looking just for, you know, a little bit of information on credit, you know, we’re here.
Kevin Freeland [00:25:07]:
Same thing. LinkedIn and kevin.freeland@equifax.com Beautiful.
Bryn Griffiths [00:25:11]:
Beautiful. Thanks. I knew we weren’t going to get to everything today because it just, we’ll just have to…
Kevin Freeland [00:25:14]:
Just scratching the surface.
Bryn Griffiths [00:25:16]:
We’ll have to get together at another one of these big events for this. But thanks for your time today, guys.
Ken Malin [00:25:20]:
Very welcome. Been a pleasure.
Kevin Freeland [00:25:22]:
Thank you.
Bryn Griffiths [00:25:23]:
Hey, that’s it for today’s episode of Overdue Advice. We’re easy to find online. MetCredit is on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and X @MetCredit. And you can also check out Brian Summerfelt’s blog. It’s easy to find, too. It’s blog.metcredit.com the website also includes numerous helpful tools and calculators to assess your business debt risk. And we’d also love to to hear from you. So subscribe, like or leave us a review on this or any of our podcasts and make sure you share that podcast with your friends and business associates.
You could drop us a line at overdueadvice@metcredit.com. Overdue Advice, the podcast about cash flow strategies to grow your business. I’m Bryn Griffiths,