Consumer Law

Credit Bureaus Gathering More Info on Consumers to Sell to Lenders

By Kemnitzer, Anderson, Barron, Ogilvie & Brewer

The WSJ reports that credit bureaus and Fair Isaac are beginning to sell new types of financial information to banks for purposes of evaluating credit applications. The bureaus are offering to report on your rent and utility payments, income, home's value, and evaluate your banking activities.

Fair Isaac, who invented the FICO credit score will report on customers' bank deposits, balances, and withdrawals. The credit bureaus are estimating customers' income something the Federal Reserve allows lenders to do in order to satisfy new requirements that credit-card applicants show the ability to pay their debts. The bureaus look at your credit lines, age and size of your mortgage to estimate incomes.

Experian bought RentBureau, a company that collects rental-payment data from property managers. The data will be integrated into credit records before the end of the year.

Equifax, another of the big three credit bureaus, offers financial-service providers an estimate of liquid wealth as part of a financial "suite" of information.

Full post as published by California Credit Law Blog on November 07, 2010 (boomark / email).