Neighbourhood View™ offers privacy-compliant, aggregated credit data from Equifax Canada. This database includes 198 variables—such as household debt level and the number of credit applications made in the last three months. The database has been grouped into four separate modules to provide a powerful financial analysis for understanding the credit characteristics of consumers and markets. It is also available as PRIZM® profiles and neighbourhood summaries.
Neighbourhood View™ facilitates a broad range of marketing applications, including segmentation, risk analysis, market analysis, customer insights, and media planning. The privacy-compliant database makes it easy for marketers to determine which areas with desired credit characteristics are likely to contain good prospects.
The four modules give a summary view of the credit characteristics of consumers and markets, providing a more financially insightful picture of a neighbourhood beyond what is found in demographic data.
- Module “A” provides an overall picture of total debt and current delinquency.
- Module “B” provides details by issuer type (e.g. banks vs. credit cards) and structure (e.g. instalment vs. revolving).
- Module “C” provides details regarding historical delinquency, age of creditor, and average Equifax credit scores.
- Module “D” provides all of the above but only for mortgages (Modules “A,” “B,” and “C” refer to non-mortgage and non-home equity lines of credit).
Below are some additional resources linked for your reference: release notes, variable list, metadata, glossary, and user guide.
Additional Resources
Terms & Definitions
Bad Debt: A credit account that the financial institution deems unlikely to be repaid and has assigned a rating of 7, 8 or 9 (see Bank Ratings).
Credit File: Collection of an individual’s credit history, identifying information, and other records maintained by a credit reporting agency.
Credit Limit: The highest amount that a credit grantor allows to be charged on the account.
Inquiry: A request by a credit-issuing institution to view all or part of a consumer’s credit report. There are different types of inquiries.
Hard Inquiry: When a lender obtains a copy of a credit file to evaluate the consumer’s credit worthiness.
Soft Inquiry: When a credit file is accessed without affecting a consumer’s credit rating, such as account review inquiries by an existing creditor.
Open Trade: A credit account that has had activity within the past 12 months and has not been reported as closed.
Derogatory Public Records: Publicly accessible documents that negatively impact a credit rating, such as bankruptcies, judgments, suits, foreclosures, and liens.
Satisfactory: Refers to a credit account with a current bank rating of 1, indicating paid as agreed (See Bank Ratings).
Trade: A credit industry term for an account listed on a credit file. Examples include: credit card, loan and mortgage.
ERS: Equifax Risk Score. The higher the score the lower the risk. Score range: 300 to 900.
BNI: Average Bankruptcy Navigator Indicator score is the likelihood of a bankruptcy filing during the next 24 months. The higher the score, the lower the risk.
Bank Ratings
A national standard that financial institutions use to classify the status of a credit account.
0: Too new to rate; approved but not used
1: Pays (or paid) within 30 days of due date or not over one payment past due
2: Pays (or paid) in more than 30 days from due date, but not more than 60 days
3: Pays (or paid) in more than 60 days from payment due date, but not more than 90 days
4: Pays (or paid) in more than 90 days from payment due date, but not more than 120 days
5: Pays (or paid) in more than 120 days, or more than four payments past due, but not yet rated 9
7: Making regular payments under a consolidation order, credit counselling or similar arrangement
8: Repossession
9: Bad debt; placed for collection; skip account
Credit File Purge Rules
The age of the information shown on a credit file differs depending on the data type.
Inquiries: 3 years (5 inquiries or less; do not purge)
Judgments: 6 years from date filed (In PEI, 7 years)
Collections: 6 years from date of last payment
Tradeline Items: 6 years from date of last activity
Previous High Rates: 6 years from date reported
Banking Items: 6 years from date reported
Bankruptcy Category: 3 years from date settled (In BC, 2 years); if none, 6 years from date filed
Bankruptcy: 6 years from date discharged; if none, 7 years from date filed
Double Bankruptcy: 1st purges after 14 years from discharge; 2nd purges after 14 years
Secured Loans: 6 years from date filed (In PEI, 7 years)
Credit Institution Type
Bank: A financial institution licensed as a receiver of deposits; includes Canadian Schedule I banks such as CIBC and TD.
Credit Union: Canadian financial institutions designated as credit unions or caisse populaires such as Vancity and Desjardins.
National Card Provider: Credit card providers such as Amex and Capital One, as well as bank-issued national cards such as Visa and Mastercard.
Monoline: A subset of national card providers that includes non-bank credit card issuers such as Amex and Capital One.
Auto Finance: Credit institutions providing vehicle financing such as Ford Motor Credit Company.
Personal Finance: Financial institutions like HSBC Financial and CitiFinancial.
Sales Finance: A non-banking financial institution such as Travellers Financial Group.
Retail: Non-bank credit lenders who operate retail store operations such as HBC, Best Buy and Home Depot.
Retail Department: A subset of retail lenders that operate department stores, such as Hudson's Bay Company.
Credit Account Type
Installment Credit: An account in which the amount of the payment and number of payments are predetermined or fixed.
Revolving Credit: An account in which you can borrow money up to your credit limit on an ongoing basis. Regular payments are made depending on the balance of the account; examples include credit card and line of credit.
Mortgage: A contract where the creditor has actual title to the property, but the property remains the use and occupancy of the borrower as long as the conditions of the mortgage are met.
NOTE: Equifax does not maintain credit records for individuals under the age of majority in their current
province of residence.