Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
Thank you. (Operator's Instructions). And our first question comes from Carter Malloy with Stephens, Inc. Please go ahead.
Carter Malloy - Stephens, Inc.
Hey, guys. Can you talk about the successes with cross selling TALX, Work Number? I think you said you had two new significant customers — I thought last quarter it was only one card issuer that signed up. Can you talk about what type of returns on their spend they're seeing —
Richard F. Smith
Carter, is that you? Could you repeat that, as you're cutting out just a little bit.
Carter Malloy - Stephens, Inc.
Sorry, maybe it is my headset here. So just on your successes with TALX, I think you said you had two —
Richard F. Smith
Yes. Those were just two significant ones I talked about last quarter which we just closed. My point there was they've gone into the billing cycle now, and it's actually generating significant revenue for us. The cross sells are amazing, Carter, right now. Every bank we go into, every financial institution we go into and we talk about the value of combining attributes from employment income with our credit data to solve problems, whether it be collections, whether it be account management, whether it be triggers for setting limits — I think we said we closed 10 new ones alone in the second quarter, and that's on top of many, many, many in the first half of the year as well as last year.
So it is doing everything and more than we expected and it's reflective. Look at the numbers; we're looking at over 23% and accelerating.
Carter Malloy - Stephens, Inc.
And is that just because you found new levels? I know you guys worked on pricing for a long time to — especially since you're trying not to update the guys who are paying for the flow reports by sending triggers or —
Richard F. Smith
Yes. What this is, again, is leveraging all the relationships that Dann Adams' team has with the banks to bring new data sources in to solve new problems for customers.
Carter Malloy - Stephens, Inc.
Okay. And then your core online business, can you just talk about price versus volume there?
Richard F. Smith
Yeah, do you remember those numbers?
Lee Adrean
Yeah. Transaction volume was down 20%, but our average revenue per transaction was up 8%, leading to a net decline of 12%. And again, the issue there is more one of mix. Pricing trends right at the moment are — on core credit reports are flattish, but the very large national credit cards who tend to have the greatest volume and hence the best pricing have declined at a more rapid rate as they've really pulled back on their new account activity in particular, and some of our segments that have higher average pricing have become a larger portion of our base. All of those segments, except for mortgage, are actually declining. It's just that some have declined faster than others, and the ones that have declined the fastest have the lowest average price so that 8% improvement, we love it, but I wouldn't describe it as a sustainable trend. I'd describe it as a mix issue.
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