Consumer information management marketer Equifax Inc., and Lycos.com this week signed a deal to provide users of the online portal with Equifax information services and products on a co-branded site that will debut in September.
Users visiting the Lycos portal can click on Equifax-branded tabs on such site channels as business and careers, real estate, auto, shopping and personal finance Web guides to be whisked straight to the co-branded site.
“What we’re trying to do with this arrangement is that in the event the users try to review information on Lycos to buy online or offline, they have the opportunity to have access to their credit file via Equifax,” said Sean Barror, manager-financial e-commerce at Lycos, Waltham, MA.
Barror made clear that Lycos will have no access to the consumer’s credit information, according to existing laws on privacy.
The relationship between the two marketers will be promoted via banner ads on Lycos’ home page, Web guides and run-of-site positions across the site. Text links will also take users straight from Lycos’ Web guides to Equifax.com, where Barror said the planned co-branded site will reside.
The e-commerce component of the deal is represented by the sale of users’ credit reports online via Equifax, said Barror. This helps the consumer review his or her financial status before making a purchase.
“Equifax is the first provider of this financial information interactively,” he said, adding that currently credit reports presented online were static. “Not only can users get the credit report online, they can also navigate interactively through point-and-click functions.”
