By: Javi Calderon
Credit Help May Be On The Way For Millions Of Americans
In an attempt to make credit more available to low-income consumers, a company named CoreLogic has developed a new credit score that will broaden the scope of what information goes into calculating a person’s credit rating.
Almost anything that can be financed, from child support payments, to payday loans, to car rentals, and even rent-to-own furniture and appliances are considered and calculated into the new CoreScore credit rating. CoreLogic claims that the goal is to help paint a more complete portrait of an individuals financial life, in order to help those in the rapidly-stratifying middle class – those who are under-banked and have never purchased a home, and thus have little means for showing improvement in their credit through traditional means.
Unfortunately, some consumer advocates worry that opening up the credit formula to include more factors may in fact do more of a disservice to low income borrowers. After all, showing an even greater pattern of inconsistent payment would justify even higher rates for struggling borrowers.
For lenders, the new score will bring millions of Americans who were previously living outside of the scope of the traditional FICO score and make them available to new lending opportunities. By taking into account more data points, the score portrays an individuals’ financial responsibilities more accurately, and thus will identify previously unseen lending opportunities. In short, while the score may or may not be good news for the under-banked consumer, it is certainly good news for credit lenders who are hungry to tap into a new pool of clientele.
Since 2008, traditional banking, the housing market and the economy have all taken a considerable hit. Millions of Americans have been forced to utilize alternative lending products like payday lending, car title loans and other high-risk lending tools that have therefore skyrocketed in popularity.
While bringing more people into the grid, and more-accurately identifying an individuals’ financial history, will inevitably seal that persons’ fate, it will also accurately identify those people who are not qualified for traditional credit to alternative credit lenders.
The CoreScore is set to beintroduced in conjunction with FICO in 2012.
