The Work Number charges per report, from $73.45 on its own pricing page. For self-employed, gig and non-QM borrowers it often has no record at all. Upload a bank statement below and get verified deposit income in minutes, from $99 a month.
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The Work Number is Equifax's employment and income verification database. A lender with a permissible purpose orders a report, and if the borrower's employer or payroll provider contributes data, the report comes back in seconds. Equifax says more than 5 million employers contribute and the database holds over 839 million employee records. For a W-2 borrower at a large employer, that speed is hard to beat.
The problem is the bill. The Work Number pricing page lists pay-as-you-go reports starting at $73.45 for some reports, for organizations verifying 250 applicants a year or fewer, and says larger users get invoiced contract pricing that varies by purpose and time frame, with verification minimums that may apply. A lawsuit filed by two mortgage lenders in May 2024 alleged the per-transaction price rose from $17.85 in 2012 to $66.45, and the Community Home Lenders of America told regulators in March 2024 that each pull cost $55 to $70, so a two-borrower file could reach $280 in verifications alone. Many lenders order more than one pull per file, at application and again before closing.
This page compares the real alternatives: the payroll-connection vendors (Truework and Truv, both now owned by Checkr, and Argyle), the free in-house verbal VOE, and verifying income from bank statements with LenderAnalyzer. They do not all do the same job, and the honest answer for most lenders is a waterfall, not a single replacement. Every vendor fact below comes from that vendor's own site or a dated news report so you can check it before you switch.
Start by splitting your verifications into two piles: borrowers The Work Number actually covers, and borrowers it returns nothing for. The alternatives work very differently on each pile.
For a salaried borrower at a large employer that reports to Equifax, The Work Number returns employment dates, pay rate and year-to-date income instantly, around the clock, with no borrower action. It is also built into most mortgage LOS and POS platforms, so ordering it is one click. If most of your volume is W-2 borrowers at big employers, the goal is usually to order it less often, not to stop ordering it.
Equifax prices each report by purpose and by time frame, so a current-employment check and a two-year income history are different products at different prices. The public floor is $73.45 for some reports on pay-as-you-go. Industry reports put contract pulls at $55 to $70 in 2024, and one 2026 vendor blog cites $130.69 per report without a source, so treat that figure as unverified. Add a second borrower and a pre-closing re-verification and the verification line on one mortgage file can pass $200 to $280.
A database only works if the employer reports to it. Self-employed borrowers, 1099 contractors, gig workers, people paid by small local employers, and business owners who draw income from their own company usually return no record, and a no-hit can still cost you time. These are exactly the files where lenders end up collecting 12 or 24 months of bank statements anyway, which is where a statement analyzer replaces manual work rather than a database pull.
These vendors ask the borrower to log in to their payroll provider or bank, then pull income and employment data directly from the source. Coverage claims are high (Truework says over 97% of U.S. workers, Truv 96%) and the data is fresh, but the borrower has to complete the login, and none of the three publishes a per-verification price. Checkr bought Truework in 2025 and announced it was acquiring Truv in August 2026, so two of the best-known challengers now sit under one owner. Factor that into any long contract.
A verbal VOE costs nothing but staff time. Your processor calls the employer using an independently sourced phone number and documents who confirmed employment and when. Fannie Mae still requires a verbal verification of employment close to closing for most employment income, so many lenders already make that call and pay for a database pull on top of it. Check whether your investor overlays truly require the paid report or only accept it.
LenderAnalyzer reads PDF, scanned or photographed bank statements, extracts every transaction, checks the math against the printed opening and closing balances, and groups deposits by source. You get monthly deposit totals, recurring payroll and 1099 deposits, transfers between the borrower's own accounts flagged so they are not counted twice, average daily balance, NSF and overdraft counts and existing debt payments. That is income evidence for borrowers no database covers, and a fraud check for those it does. It does not confirm employment status, so it complements a VOE instead of pretending to be one.
A practical order for a mixed book is: borrower-permissioned payroll or bank data first when the borrower is online, bank statement analysis for self-employed and non-QM files, a verbal VOE where your investor allows it, and The Work Number only where the first steps miss or an investor requires it. Lenders who build that order usually find most of the cost is in a minority of files that never needed the database at all.
Prices are each vendor's own published statements or dated news reports. Where a vendor publishes no figure, the table says so.
Swipe sideways to see the full comparison
| Option | What it verifies | Published price | Main limitation | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| LenderAnalyzer This page | Income from bank statements: monthly deposits, recurring payroll and 1099 deposits, own-account transfers, ADB, NSFs and existing debt, checked against printed balances | From $99 a month flat, with volume and enterprise tiers; no per-verification fee | Does not confirm current employment; needs the borrower to provide statements | Self-employed, gig, 1099, non-QM and small business borrowers, and deposit fraud checks |
| The Work Number (Equifax) | Employment and income from employer and payroll data contributed to Equifax | Pay-as-you-go reports start at $73.45 for some reports; contract pricing above 250 applicants a year | Per-report cost on every pull, and no record when the employer does not contribute | Instant W-2 verification at large employers inside most LOS platforms |
| Truework (Checkr) | Income and employment through instant data, payroll, bank and tax credentials, outreach and document upload | Not published; truework.com/pricing returns a 404 | Price only on a sales quote; borrower or employer action needed when instant data misses | Mortgage lenders that want one vendor to run a verification waterfall |
| Truv (Checkr) | Consumer-permissioned income, employment and assets from payroll providers and banks | Not published; Launch, Professional and Enterprise tiers, annual commitments on the upper two | The borrower has to log in and authorize the connection | Digital mortgage and consumer lenders with online borrowers and gig income |
| Argyle | Consumer-permissioned income, employment and assets from payroll and banking connections | Not published; no public pricing page | The borrower has to log in and authorize the connection | Lenders building verification into an online application |
| Verbal VOE in-house | Employment status and dates confirmed by phone with the employer | Staff time only | Slow, does not verify income amounts, depends on the employer answering | Pre-closing re-verification where the investor allows it |
Comparison compiled by LenderAnalyzer from public vendor materials; see the date noted above each table. Competitor names are trademarks of their respective owners; figures may change, so verify current details with each vendor.
Computed deterministically from every extracted transaction, every figure traceable to its source line.
Computed across the full statement period, carried forward day by day.
Deposits vs withdrawals and net flow, broken down month by month.
Every insufficient-funds and overdraft incident counted, with fees totaled.
Recurring deposits grouped into income streams with estimated monthly amounts.
Debits to other lenders and funders detected and totaled per month.
Days below zero across the period, a direct stress signal.
The biggest credits with dates and sources, concentration flagged.
Automatic red and yellow flags your analysts can review in seconds.
Drop in PDFs, scans or photos, one statement or a multi-month package, from any bank.
Every transaction is extracted, then cash flow, balances, income streams, NSF activity and debt payments are computed.
Read the underwriting snapshot, download the Excel report, or pull structured JSON into your LOS via API.
28 lending document types extracted out of the box, build the complete picture of an applicant's financial situation.
Common questions from lending and credit teams.
There is no single replacement. For W-2 borrowers who will log in, payroll-connection vendors such as Truework, Truv or Argyle are the closest match. For self-employed, 1099 and non-QM borrowers The Work Number usually cannot see, verifying income from bank statements is the practical alternative, and LenderAnalyzer does that from $99 a month.
Equifax lists pay-as-you-go reports starting at $73.45 for some reports, for organizations verifying 250 applicants a year or fewer. Larger users sign contracts with pricing that varies by report purpose and time frame. Mortgage lenders reported $55 to $70 per pull in 2024, and two pulls per borrower are common.
Yes, for part of your volume. A verbal VOE costs only staff time, and bank statement analysis costs a flat monthly fee instead of a per-report charge. Payroll-connection vendors claim savings too (Truv advertises 30 to 80%), but none publishes a price, so compare written quotes per completed verification.
Equifax controls a large share of the employer payroll data lenders need for instant verification, and lenders and trade groups argue that limits price competition. A 2024 class action by two mortgage lenders alleged prices rose 272% since 2012. Equifax disputes that framing and says the service helps people through important life events.
For many loan types, yes. Non-QM bank statement programs, small business loans and many consumer loans qualify income from 12 or 24 months of deposits. Agency mortgages with W-2 income still need employment verification, so bank statements usually supplement a VOE there rather than replace it.
Usually not. The Work Number is built from data that employers and payroll providers contribute about their employees, so a self-employed borrower or business owner normally has no record. Lenders verify that income from tax returns and bank statements instead, which is where a bank statement analyzer saves the most time.
Checkr. It announced a definitive agreement to acquire Truework in April 2025 and announced the acquisition of Truv in August 2026. Both still market their own verification products, but two of the main challengers to The Work Number now share one owner.
Truework does not publish prices, so there is no public answer. It markets lower verification costs, citing a customer that cut verification costs by 20%, and a 75% completion rate against what it calls a roughly 48% industry average. Ask for a price per completed verification, not per order.
Often, yes. A verbal VOE is a phone call to the employer using an independently sourced number, documented in the file. Fannie Mae requires a verbal verification of employment shortly before closing for most employment income anyway, so check whether your investor overlays require the paid report in addition.
Upload the statement in the tool at the top of this page and the transactions and income figures come back in minutes, checked against the printed balances. Results export to Excel, CSV and JSON, and the Pro plan adds a REST API and a signed webhook for your LOS workflow.
How credit teams run these calculations by hand, so you can see exactly what the software automates.
Verify borrower income from statements, stubs and returns.
Qualifying income from 12 or 24 months of deposits.
Check pay stubs against the deposits they should match.
Bank statement loans for self-employed borrowers.
Income and asset analysis for mortgage files.
Borrower-permissioned bank data, compared.
What a VOE costs per file, and how to spend less.
The documents and checks for self-employed files.
Analyze your first statements free, plans from $99/month, 50% off billed annually.
