Experian UK vs Equifax UK: A Commercial Credit Buyer's Comparison

Quick verdict

Experian and Equifax are the two largest FCA-regulated credit reference agencies operating in UK commercial credit. Both hold decades of consumer and commercial credit data, both draw from Companies House and court records, and both serve the same set of regulated buyers: banks, lenders, trade creditors, and AML compliance functions. The differences are in scoring model depth, self-serve accessibility, product maturity for commercial versus consumer use, and global reach. Experian has the stronger self-serve channel, a published per-report price, and the most developed global entity graph for cross-border buyers. Equifax’s edge is in its UK trade-payment contributor network and the depth of its commercial scoring models for large portfolio decisioning. For small to mid-market buyers evaluating the two for the first time, Experian Business Express is easier to start with. For banks and large lenders embedding commercial credit data into decisioning systems at scale, both are serious contenders and most sophisticated buyers run both as a dual-bureau policy.

Company background

Experian UK

Experian plc is listed on the London Stock Exchange (ticker: EXPN) and is one of the world’s largest credit information services groups by revenue. Its UK operations are among its oldest and most developed, with the commercial credit bureau tracing back to the Credit Data Corporation and subsequent acquisitions in the 1980s and 1990s. Experian is FCA-authorised as a credit reference agency. Its commercial data assets include the Commercial CAIS (Credit Account Information Sharing) data pool, which aggregates credit facility data from banks, asset finance providers, and trade credit insurers covering over eight million UK businesses; Delphi scoring models for consumer and commercial credit; and the broader Experian global entity graph which links UK companies to their international parent structures.

In 2026, Experian integrated its commercial data into the Experian Ascend platform [VERIFY: see May 2026 press release], extending the reach of commercial decisioning analytics to more credit teams. The UK business also runs Experian Business Express, the self-serve channel aimed at SME buyers and credit controllers who want company credit reports without a full enterprise contract.

Equifax UK

Equifax Inc. is listed on the NYSE (ticker: EFX) and is the second-largest credit bureau in the US by revenue. Its UK operations are the oldest Equifax entity outside the US, and it holds FCA authorisation as a credit reference agency alongside Experian and TransUnion. Equifax UK’s commercial data product, the UK Commercial Credit Database (UKCD), aggregates trade-payment data from its contributor network, CCJ (County Court Judgment) records, Gazette insolvency notices, and Companies House filings.

Equifax UK’s commercial product has historically been positioned at the larger end of the market: banks, invoice financiers, asset finance providers, and large trade creditors rather than small business self-serve. The Equifax Ignite analytics environment gives enterprise buyers a cloud-based platform for building and running custom scoring models on top of Equifax data.

Coverage depth

Common foundation. Both bureaus draw from the same UK public data: Companies House for company registration, director, and PSC (People with Significant Control) data; court records for County Court Judgments; The Gazette and Insolvency Service data for formal insolvency events. Both enrich this with proprietary trade-payment data from contributing lenders and suppliers.

Experian-specific. The Commercial CAIS database covers credit facility data on over eight million UK businesses, contributed by banks, asset financiers, and trade creditors. This makes Experian’s commercial credit data one of the deepest in the UK for borrowing behaviour. The Delphi commercial score is a widely deployed model among UK lenders, particularly for SME credit decisions. Experian also provides the Business Express self-serve product for non-enterprise buyers. The global dimension: Experian’s international entity graph can stitch UK company data to parent companies in other jurisdictions, which is a material advantage for cross-border compliance buyers.

Equifax-specific. Equifax’s UKCD draws on a trade-payment contributor network that is comparable in scope to CAIS. Its Ignite platform allows enterprise buyers to build custom models using Equifax data, which is attractive for banks that want to tune scoring models to their specific portfolio characteristics rather than use an off-the-shelf Equifax score. Equifax’s CAMEO segmentation data (consumer and business demographics) is also used for marketing enrichment by commercial teams alongside credit use cases.

For a UK-only credit decision, the practical data difference between Experian and Equifax on a large-corporate file is small: both will have trade-payment data, court records, and Companies House information. The gap becomes visible at the SME and micro-business end, where each bureau’s contributor network may have different depth, and at the cross-border end, where Experian’s global graph has more coverage.

Data freshness

Both bureaus commit to daily updates on core company data sourced from Companies House and court records. CAIS and UKCD contributor updates typically follow a monthly or more frequent cycle depending on the contributing institution. Monitoring products (adverse event alerts) on both platforms aim for real-time or same-day notification when a new CCJ, Gazette notice, or Companies House filing event occurs.

The honest caveat applies to both: bureau freshness depends on when upstream sources supply data. Companies House accounts can be filed months after year-end. Trade-payment data from contributing lenders has its own reporting lag. Neither bureau can flag what has not been filed or reported yet.

Self-serve accessibility and pricing

This is the sharpest practical difference between the two for small to mid-market buyers.

Experian Business Express publishes its prices publicly. A single UK company credit report is GBP 24.99 (USD 31). Subscription plans cover ten reports for GBP 450 (USD 568) per year or twenty reports for GBP 750 (USD 946) per year [VERIFY: confirm against current Experian Business Express pricing page]. My Business Profile, which allows a business director to monitor their own company credit report, is GBP 24.99 (USD 31) per month after a two-month free trial. These are accessible without a sales conversation.

Equifax UK commercial does not publish standard pricing for its commercial credit products. All commercial enquiries go through direct sales, with a response target of 48 hours on their business enquiry form. Enterprise pricing reflects bundle negotiations across data feeds, scoring, monitoring, and Ignite platform access.

For small buyers evaluating between Experian and Equifax, the practical answer is often to start with Experian Business Express (you can buy a report today without a call) and then include both in an RFP when the volume justifies enterprise pricing from either.

API access

Both bureaus offer enterprise REST APIs for integrated access, with authentication typically via OAuth or API key on enterprise contracts. Endpoint coverage on both platforms includes company search, credit report retrieval, monitoring webhooks, and batch processing.

The self-serve API difference: Experian does not publish a public developer API for its commercial products at the same level of openness as Companies House. Equifax similarly operates API access through enterprise contracts. For developers wanting machine-readable UK company credit data at the sub-enterprise level, Creditsafe (which has a documented API with subscription access) or Endole (GBP 0.60 to GBP 3.00 / USD 0.76 to USD 3.79 per response) are more accessible starting points.

PSC and UBO depth

Both bureaus surface Companies House PSC data as part of their company reports. Neither provides deep multi-hop UBO traversal for complex international structures.

For a UK company whose PSC entry names a British Virgin Islands or Cayman Islands parent, the bureau report will note the corporate PSC but cannot trace through the foreign entity to the natural person. For that level of beneficial ownership investigation, Experian’s global entity graph is more developed than Equifax’s UK offering, but neither replaces a dedicated cross-jurisdictional UBO investigation using Bureau van Dijk FAME/Orbis or D&B.

The ECCTA identity verification mandate, mandatory from November 2025, will improve the underlying quality of director and PSC data in Companies House. Both Experian and Equifax will benefit from this improvement in their underlying source data.

Compliance posture

Both Experian and Equifax hold FCA authorisation as credit reference agencies. Both publish Credit Reference Agency Information Notices (CRAINs) as required under UK GDPR and the Consumer Credit Act, informing data subjects of their rights. Both are subject to ICO enforcement under UK GDPR, with potential fines of up to GBP 17.5 million (USD 22.1 million) or 4% of global annual turnover for serious breaches.

For buyers using either bureau for regulated credit decisions or AML KYC: FCA-regulated CRA data is the appropriate source under the Money Laundering Regulations 2017 and subsequent amendments. Using CRA data from a supervised firm creates a more defensible audit trail than using unregulated data sources. Both Experian and Equifax operate data processing agreements for institutional buyers, which is necessary for UK GDPR compliance at the controller-processor boundary.

The Data (Use and Access) Act 2025, which became law on 19 June 2025, introduces a “recognised legitimate interests” lawful basis for processing and reforms automated decision-making rules. For credit bureau use cases, this refines (rather than changes) the legal basis on which CRA data can be processed. Both bureaus updated their legal bases documentation following the Act.

Pricing model comparison

Best-fit buyer profiles

Persona 1: UK trade creditor or SME lender doing credit checks at low to medium volume

If you are running 5 to 50 company credit checks per month on UK counterparties, Experian Business Express is the most frictionless starting point. Published pricing, no sales call required, a portal you can use in minutes. At ten reports per month, the GBP 450 (USD 568) annual plan works out to GBP 3.75 (USD 4.73) per report, considerably cheaper than the GBP 24.99 (USD 31) one-off price. For the same volume, Creditsafe on subscription may also be competitive; compare quotes from both.

Persona 2: Bank or large lender embedding commercial data into credit decisioning at scale

At portfolio scale (hundreds of queries per day), both Experian and Equifax become serious options and both should be quoted. The Delphi scoring model from Experian and Equifax’s UKCD models each have track records with specific lender segments; your credit risk team may have a preference based on model performance in your portfolio. Many UK banks run a dual-bureau policy for key decisions, which removes the single-source risk and provides corroborating data for credit committee files.

Persona 3: Foreign firm doing due diligence on a UK acquisition

If you need a one-off enriched view of a UK target company for an M&A file, Experian Business Express at GBP 24.99 (USD 31) or a single Equifax commercial report (through a UK intermediary with access) gives you the bureau-layer data quickly. But for deep UBO analysis of a UK company with foreign parents, Bureau van Dijk FAME or Experian’s global enterprise product is more appropriate than the self-serve business credit report.

Comparison matrix

How to evaluate both

Buyers running a formal procurement between Experian and Equifax UK commercial credit can use this five-step process.

1. Pull a sample report from both bureaus on ten known entities. Include a mix: a large UK plc, an SME, a dormant entity, a recently dissolved company, and a company that has had a CCJ or entered administration in the last 12 months. Compare the fields returned, the score differences, and how each bureau handles edge cases.

2. Assess scoring model fit for your portfolio. Ask both bureaus for a model validation against a historical sample from your book (the past 12 to 24 months of credit decisions with known outcomes). The bureau whose model has lower Gini impurity or higher KS statistic on your book is the better statistical fit.

3. Test API latency and reliability. For production integrations, run a 100-entity batch test under NDA. Measure p50 and p99 latency, error rates, and how each supplier handles an entity that is not in their database.

4. Compare monitoring alert coverage. Set up monitoring on five companies you know have had recent adverse events (a CCJ registered in the last 30 days, a new administration). Check which bureau alerts first and how quickly.

5. Check FCA registration and data processing agreement terms. Confirm the current FCA registration status and review the DPA terms, particularly around cross-border data transfer (relevant if your systems sit outside the UK) and audit rights.

What businessdataguide does

businessdataguide is an editorial publication for B2B compliance data buyers. We compare suppliers and surface tradeoffs without being paid by either side. We are a publisher, not a vendor and not a procurement advisor. For broader context on the UK supplier market, see the UK company data suppliers buyer’s guide.

Frequently asked questions

Are Experian UK and Equifax UK regulated by the same body?

Both are regulated by the FCA as credit reference agencies and by the ICO for data protection under UK GDPR. The FCA authorisation covers their consumer credit activities; the ICO oversight covers how they process personal data for both consumer and commercial purposes.

Does Experian UK have access to all UK business credit data?

Experian’s Commercial CAIS pool covers over eight million UK businesses where contributing lenders and trade creditors have reported data. Coverage is strongest for companies with formalised banking relationships and trade credit lines. Very small or cash-only businesses, start-ups with no credit history, and recently incorporated entities may have thin or absent files in any bureau, including Experian.

What happens if Experian and Equifax give different credit scores for the same company?

Score differences between bureaus are normal: each bureau’s score reflects the data in its own contributor network, applies its own model weights, and uses its own data processing pipeline. A material difference (rather than a minor variance) may indicate that one bureau has adverse data the other does not, which is a reason to investigate rather than ignore. Dual-bureau credit policies use exactly this signal: a file that scores well on one bureau and poorly on another gets escalated for manual review.

Can I use Experian or Equifax data for AML screening?

Their credit data feeds into KYC processes (confirming a company exists, who its officers are, whether it has adverse financial events). For AML screening specifically (PEPs, sanctions, adverse media), both Experian and Equifax offer compliance modules, but many regulated firms run dedicated sanctions screening tools (Refinitiv World-Check, Dow Jones Risk and Compliance, LexisNexis) alongside the bureau product. Check that the sanctions list coverage and refresh cadence on the bureau’s compliance module match your regulatory obligations before relying on it as your primary sanctions screen.

Which bureau covers Northern Ireland and Scotland?

Both Experian and Equifax cover UK-registered companies in all four nations: England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland. Companies House registers for Scotland (via Companies House Scotland) and Northern Ireland (via the Companies Registry for Northern Ireland) feed into both bureaus’ underlying data.