MeridianLink CreditAPI

A powerful web service enabling software applications to retrieve consumer credit data in XML format.

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A Smarter Way To Connect to the Credit and Verification Services You Need

Credit resellers and verification service providers have been cropping up left and right in recent years. But while options are great to have, how much time and how many resources can you dedicate to integrating each individual solution into your platform?

Recoup that development time with MeridianLink® CreditAPI®, giving you access to credit and verification data from dozens of resellers and service providers from a single API. Take advantage of customizable response layouts, merge technology, attribute data, and dedicated support staff to save resources and gain a leg up on the competition.

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MeridianLink CreditAPI Features

A secure, easy and effective tool to retrieve consumer credit data.

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Rapid Deployment

CreditAPI® is designed to be easy to access and simple to deploy. A typical deployment can be completed within 1 business day. CreditAPI accommodates many data formats, including XML and MISMO 2.3.1/3.4, allowing for fast and seamless communication between systems. We provide sample code and testing environments to facilitate a smooth and error-free development process. Most importantly, our support staff is readily available to personally assist with any development issues. 

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Merge Technology

CreditAPI can merge credit data that is obtained from the three credit bureaus: Experian®, Equifax®, or TransUnion®. The amount of consumer credit data that the repositories track and record is massive and inevitably contains variations between the bureaus. To produce a unified view of a borrower’s credit record, each of the repository’s data must be merged using a sophisticated algorithm that automatically determines which repository data is appropriate. This is the essence of CreditAPI’s Merge Technology. 

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Credit Attributes

Using CreditAPIs proprietary Credit Attributes, you can create customized calculations of key credit data to gain a quick picture of your consumers’ credit profile and the information most critical to your decision-making process. You can also leverage over 2,000 available attributes from the credit bureaus, allowing you to create efficient and consistent decisioning. These attributes are chosen/built based on your core business objectives and will help you tailor your decisions to industry specific standards that surpass the depth of a standard credit report.  

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Security

Due to the nature of consumer credit report data, CreditAPI maintains extremely high security requirements. All consumer credit data that is obtained via CreditAPI is retained on our secured servers. The API uses Secured Socket Layer (SSL) 128-bit encryption and is both PCI and SOC II complaint. 

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Cost Savings

Maximize your savings by only ordering what you need with SmartSelect cascaded ordering inside of CreditAPI.

Interested in Learning More?

Talk to our experts about how we can help your organization with its’ credit verification needs.

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Sample Credit Reports from MeridianLink Credit API

View CreditAPI Sample Reports

Choose a sample report output format below to view a sample credit report.

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MeridianLink CreditAPI FAQ

Getting Started

CreditAPI® is designed for companies that have permissible purpose to access consumer credit reports from the three credit bureaus: Experian®, Equifax®, or TransUnion®. End-users of CreditAPI will need to be existing subscribers of or vetted by the three bureaus, or a credit reseller to retrieve credit reports. Our CreditAPI representatives can also present alternative options to contracting with the credit bureaus directly.

To get set up with CreditAPI, please contact MeridianLink® and ask to speak with a CreditAPI representative. The CreditAPI representative will gather your requirements and provide the contract to initiate the setup process. Once the contract is executed, CreditAPI will be set up with your specific requirements.

Setup of CreditAPI typically takes about 3 to 5 business days depending on the requirements. Setup doesn’t start until the paperwork is completed and the end-user has subscriber code(s) with at least one of the bureaus. Third party integration with CreditAPI will depend on the integrator’s technical experience and familiarity with credit data. With sufficient API integration experience, it could take less than a day to integrate with CreditAPI. 

Specifications

CreditAPI is a web-based interface that is compatible with any client-side environment. The only technical requirement is the ability to post requests via HTTPS with 128-bit SSL encryption.

Two to three seconds for one bureau credit report. 11 seconds for a three bureaus merge credit report.

CreditAPI supports the following common formats: HTML, MISMO, PDF, TEXT, and XML.

Best Practices

CreditAPI supports both asynchronous and synchronous communication via HTTPS post. We recommend asynchronous communication as it doesn’t tie up your system’s resources.

This depends on your business needs. Most CreditAPI users go with XML for machine readable and PDF for human readable.

Yes. CreditAPI also supports IP restriction to limit your credentials from being used at a different location. This can help protect access to your account if your credentials are compromised and used elsewhere.

It is recommended that you do not store credit reports in your system to minimize liability in the event of a security breach. CreditAPI offers the ability to retrieve previously ordered credit reports using a unique reference number. This capability, in conjunction with the IP restriction feature, allows you to save storage space and minimize damage if your servers were compromised or stolen. 

Miscellaneous Features

Yes. We recommend that such features be handled by the system that is ordering the credit report. If that is not possible, CreditAPI can be set up to process the credit card that is attached to the credit order request. This is a useful feature if you want to pass the costs of the credit report to the end-user.

End-users can fully customize and generate their own credit report based on the XML data provided. As a more practical alternative, CreditAPI provides over 30 predefined customizable templates that could be used to structure the order and grouping of data that are shown on the credit reports.

Yes. Each bureau has its own add-on product that can monitor orders for discrepancies with the input data. For example, SSNs are checked to make sure they do not belong to any government or financial watchlists and that the input SSN matches with information the bureaus have in their database.

Yes, a wide selection of scores can be ordered from the bureaus. Use of credit score information may be limited by the credit bureaus. 

Ours, like most industries, is constantly changing. Our clients want more data about their prospective customers in more ways than ever before. Partnering with MeridianLink is a vitally important asset in providing the best customer experience possible.”

Tracy Dunleavey, Salesforce.com App Developer,
LASER Credit Access

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Let’s Talk — Whether you’re in the preliminary stages of research or looking for detailed answers that may require a demo, our team is always available to discuss your options and how we can help.

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