Request a consumer credit report from the Equifax Credit Reports API using OAuth 2.0

Steps

1. Register on the Equifax API Developer Portal (developer.equifax.com) and obtain a client_id and client_secret for the Credit Reports product scope
2. POST to the Equifax OAuth /oauth/token endpoint with grant_type=client_credentials, your client_id, client_secret, and the appropriate scope to receive an access_token
3. Add the access_token as a Bearer token in the Authorization header, then POST the consumer inquiry (name, address, SSN, date of birth) to the Credit Reports API endpoint
4. Inspect the JSON response for the credit summary, tradelines, inquiries, and score returned; map fields to your decisioning model
5. Ensure requests originate from a whitelisted IP address — production endpoints reject requests from non-whitelisted sources regardless of valid token
6. Implement token refresh logic: request a new token before expiry rather than caching indefinitely