The Work Number Cost for Lenders

The Work Number costs lenders from $73.45 per report on Equifax's own pay-as-you-go pricing page, for organizations verifying 250 applicants a year or fewer. Contract customers above that volume pay prices that vary by report purpose and time frame, and mortgage lenders reported $55 to $70 per pull in 2024. Because many files need two borrowers verified, and verified again before closing, the verification line on one mortgage can reach $200 to $300.

That number matters more than it looks. The Mortgage Bankers Association put independent mortgage banks' pre-tax net production profit at $1,201 per loan in the third quarter of 2025, so a $280 verification bill is close to a quarter of the profit on an average file. Below is what Equifax actually publishes, what lenders say they pay, how to work out your own cost per file, and where you can stop paying for a pull at all.

The Work Number pricing at a glance

One 2026 vendor blog quotes $130.69 per report as of January 2026 without naming a source. We could not confirm it, so treat it as a claim to test against your own invoices, not a market price.

How much does The Work Number cost per loan file?

The per-report price is only the start. What you actually pay per file depends on three multipliers: how many borrowers have employment income, how many pulls you order per borrower (most mortgage lenders order one at application and re-verify close to closing), and which report you order, since an income history report costs more than a simple employment check.

Scale it to your pipeline. A lender closing 100 two-borrower files a month at $66.45 a pull and four pulls a file spends $26,580 a month on verifications, before counting pulls on applications that never close. Those fallout pulls are often the part nobody budgets for.

Why the price keeps rising

Lenders and their trade groups argue that Equifax faces little competition for instant payroll data. The Community Home Lenders of America asked the FHFA and FHA in March 2024 to look at the pricing, saying lenders have "little or no ability to scrutinize or restrain these income verification costs." Two months later, Greystone Mortgage and First Financial Lending filed a class action in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania alleging monopolization and the 2012 to 2024 increase from $17.85 to $66.45. Equifax's public response stressed that the service helps people through events like buying a home. The case does not change your invoice today, but it explains why waiting for prices to fall is not a plan.

Competition is also consolidating. Checkr agreed to buy Truework in April 2025 and announced it was acquiring Truv in August 2026, so two of the best-known challengers now share one owner. Neither publishes a per-verification price.

Is The Work Number free?

Not for lenders. Creating an ordering account is free, but every verification report is billed, either per order on a card or on a monthly invoice under contract. Government agencies and nonprofits are charged too, on their own pricing. Employees can see their own data separately, but that does not help a lender verify a borrower.

Who pays for the verification?

In mortgage lending the verification fee is usually passed to the borrower as a third-party closing cost, which is one reason trade groups compare it to the junk fees regulators have criticized. In consumer and small business lending the lender often absorbs it. Either way, it raises the cost of every application, including the ones you decline.

Four ways lenders cut The Work Number spend

1. Stop pulling it on borrowers it cannot see. The Work Number is built from data employers and payroll providers contribute. Self-employed borrowers, business owners, 1099 contractors and many small-employer workers return no record. Order it only where the borrower's employer is likely to report.

2. Use a verbal VOE where your investor allows it. A processor's call to the employer, using an independently sourced phone number and documented in the file, costs only staff time. Fannie Mae already requires a verbal verification of employment shortly before closing for most employment income, so check whether your overlays also demand the paid report, or whether you are paying twice for the same assurance.

3. Verify income from bank statements for the files that need statements anyway. Non-QM bank statement loans, small business loans and many consumer loans qualify income from 12 or 24 months of deposits. Reading those statements by hand is the expensive part. A bank statement analyzer extracts every transaction, checks the totals against the printed balances, flags transfers between the borrower's own accounts and separates recurring payroll or 1099 deposits from one-off credits, so the income figure is defensible without a paid database report. The bank statement income calculator shows the monthly deposit math for 12 and 24 month programs.

4. Ask for a price per completed verification. When you quote Truework, Truv, Argyle or The Work Number itself, compare cost per completed verification, not per order, and ask what a no-hit costs. Truework says its completion rate is 75% against what it calls a roughly 48% industry average; whatever the real numbers on your book, a cheap order that fails and then falls back to a second vendor is not cheap.

We compare every option, with coverage, published prices and limits side by side, on The Work Number alternatives for lenders.

Where LenderAnalyzer fits

LenderAnalyzer does not replace The Work Number for a W-2 borrower at a large employer whose loan needs an employment verification. It replaces the manual work, and often the paid pull, on the files where income really lives in the bank account: self-employed and gig borrowers, non-QM bank statement programs and small business applicants. Upload a PDF, scan or photo of a statement and you get deposits by month, recurring income, average daily balance, NSF and overdraft counts and existing debt payments, with exports to Excel, CSV and JSON, and a REST API and signed webhook on the Pro plan. Pricing is from $99 a month flat, with no per-verification fee, so the 40th file in a month costs the same as the first. If you are still choosing tools for the whole income step, start with income verification software for lenders.

Verification is only one line of closing cost. Lenders squeezing the rest of the file often look next at the signing itself, where an online notary platform can replace courier and in-person notary fees on the documents that allow remote notarization.

Frequently asked questions

How much does The Work Number cost?

Equifax lists pay-as-you-go reports starting at $73.45 for some reports, for organizations verifying 250 applicants a year or fewer. Larger lenders sign invoiced contracts priced by report purpose and time frame, sometimes with minimums. Mortgage lenders reported paying $55 to $70 per pull in 2024.

How much does The Work Number charge for a VOE?

The price of a verification of employment depends on the report type and the time frame of history you order; an income history report costs more than a current-employment check. The public floor is $73.45 per report on pay-as-you-go, and contract prices are not published.

Why did The Work Number raise its prices?

Equifax has not published a reason. Lenders and trade groups argue it is because few alternatives offer instant payroll data at the same coverage. A 2024 class action alleged the price rose from $17.85 in 2012 to $66.45, which Equifax disputes as a characterization of its business.

Can lenders avoid The Work Number fees?

Partly. Skip it for self-employed and 1099 borrowers it rarely covers, use a documented verbal VOE where your investor allows, verify deposit income from bank statements for non-QM and business files, and compare payroll-connection vendors on price per completed verification.

Is Truework cheaper than The Work Number?

There is no public answer, because Truework does not publish prices and its pricing URL returns a 404. It markets lower costs through a waterfall of methods and cites a customer that cut verification costs by 20%. Get a written quote per completed verification and compare it with your current invoices.

The bottom line

The Work Number is fast and widely integrated, and at $55 to $73 or more per report, two to four times per file, it is one of the most expensive third-party lines in a mortgage file relative to profit. The cheapest pull is the one you never order: keep it for W-2 borrowers it actually covers and your investors require, and move self-employed and bank statement files to statement analysis. Upload one of those statements in the tool at the top of this page and compare the income figure with what your team builds by hand.