Bankruptcy

Bankruptcy Risk Scores

By Bob Lawless

People talk a lot about credit scores as if there is some magic number hanging over your head and that number is following you everywhere. Isn't there maybe even some commercial like that? Like many things, the perception about credit scores is generally correct but often wrong in the specifics. It is generally correct in that the credit score does follow you just about everywhere. One way, however, that the perception is incorrect in the specifics is that there is nothing magical about the particular scoring system that is used. It's all about the algorithm the credit scoring company uses.

What many people don't realize is that different creditors might use different internal scoring systems to make their own decisions. One such system is the "bankruptcy risk score," which purports to identify which borrowers are more likely to file bankruptcy. The credit scoring companies might tell me that this is not a "credit" score because it is trying to measure something else, but a rose by any other name .... even if these are not particularly sweet smelling roses. Jeremy Simon over at CreditCards.com recently called me about these bankruptcy risk scores, and the article he wrote is here. It's an often overlooked aspect of the credit reporting industry. You may want to check it out.

Full post as published by Credit Slips on January 30, 2009 (boomark / email).