You boost my bottom line,

You boost my bottom line, I'll boost yours LowerMyBills.com founder and president Matt Coffin told Inman News last fall how the company was benefiting from its relationship with its parent, Experian, which acquired the online lead generation site in 2005.

Coffin said Equifax -- one of the three major U.S. credit bureaus -- has a wealth of data on consumers' credit histories, and the expertise to analyze it. That was helping LowerMyBills.com improve the quality of leads it sells to lenders, including household names like Ameriquest Mortgage Co., Countrywide Financial Corp., HFC Corp., New Century Financial Corp., Quicken Loans, and Wells Fargo Bank.

LowerMyBills.com offers a "premier quality lead," that allows lenders to select particular "credit bands" they would like to receive as leads, Coffin said. Although it might seem counterintuitive, mortgage lenders will pay more for the names and contact information of people with low credit scores, because the subprime loans marketed to them, although riskier, are also more profitable.

When Experian reported its interim financial results for the first half of the year in November, it said sales at its Experian Interactive division (which also includes the comparison shopping site PriceGrabber) "grew strongly" (as in 54 percent, to $359 million) "as LowerMyBills.com focused on more profitable marketing spend and used Experian data and analytics to improve the quality of leads it generates for lenders." That, despite "a contraction at a major client," subprime lender Ameriquest.

While Coffin said LowerMyBills.com was getting a lot out of its relationship with Experian, the feeling is apparently mutual. This week Experian Interactive said it's putting Coffin in charge of a new research and development facility "dedicated to leveraging Experian's assets and new technologies as well as creating new lines of business." The Experian Interactive Innovation Center, with facilities in Santa Monica and San Carlos, Calif., won't occupy all of Coffin's time, as he's staying on as president of LowerMyBills.com.
--Matt Carter, Inman News

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