TransUnion Analysis: Early Summer Through End of Year Sees High Volume of Household Moves, Offering an Opportunity for Financial Institutions and Collections Agencies

CHICAGO, IL--(Marketwired - Nov 11, 2014) - Although conventional wisdom suggests the summer months prior to a new school year are most popular for household moves, a new TransUnion analysis found that the higher volume season actually lasts from May all the way through December. These findings may be of special benefit to collections agencies, financial institutions, and insurance companies that previously conducted one annual batch file update to their customers' contact information. More frequent batch updates could result in better opportunities to reach consumers.

The TransUnion analysis verified that August, just before the new school year, is the most popular month in which moves occur (representing 10.1% of all household move activity). However, more surprisingly, the later months of the year from September (9.6%) through December (8.5%) are all above average months for household moves and closer to the peak in August than expected.

"Most collections agencies, financial and insurance companies know they need to update the contact information in their files at least once a year, but many assume the new school year signals a slowdown in household moves," said Tim Martin, executive vice president at TransUnion. "Our analysis of consumer address changes found that consumers are constantly moving throughout the year, even in presumed lower volume months such as October, November and December."

Monthly Distribution of Household Move Activity

According to TransUnion's analysis, the lowest moving volumes occur in January, February and March, when the percent of household moves falls between 6% and 7.5% each month. The amount of household moves spikes as the year progresses into spring, hitting 8% by May and peaking in August.

"After the August move peak, collections agencies, financial services companies and insurance providers should strategically update their files in September to include the new address data on consumers or businesses that owe debts," said Martin. "However, only conducting one batch update in September would leave companies with inaccurate data for many months as consumers continue to move at year-end. We recommend another batch update late in the year, or perhaps at the beginning of the new year."

The TransUnion analysis reviewed self-reported consumer address changes, insurance filing reports, and other data from 2007 to 2014 and found consistent results for all states across the United States.

TransUnion's TLOxp offers a massive data repository to locate even the hardest to reach individuals and businesses that owe debt. Using the TLOxp batch processing tools, companies can reduce the time to collect and flag, scrub and merge large volumes of data to reduce the need for manual searches. More information about TLOxp can be found at www.tlo.com.

About TransUnion
As a global leader in credit and information management, TransUnion creates advantages for millions of people around the world by gathering, analyzing and delivering information. For businesses, TransUnion helps improve efficiency, manage risk, reduce costs and increase revenue by delivering comprehensive data and advanced analytics and decisioning. For consumers, TransUnion provides the tools, resources and education to help them manage their credit health and achieve their financial goals. Through these and other efforts, TransUnion is working to build stronger economies worldwide. Founded in 1968 and headquartered in Chicago, TransUnion reaches businesses and consumers in 33 countries around the world on five continents. www.transunion.com/business