TransUnion New Risk Assessments

Thanks. Looks interesting.

 

I think this is a source of MORE questions because TU is now offering a service in which the client can custom-weight, the data that they get from TU, taking some factors into account and ignoring others.

In other words, if I'm not mistaken, the TU score that WE get is more meaningless because a lender can calculate a score using data pertinent to the situation.

 

This "different scores for different types of credit" stuff just confuses me more!

 

Thay have offered pre-packaged scoring models that are tailored to specific industries and/or clients before. This new twist is that the models are available to any subscriber and can be selected/tailored at the client (subscribing credit grantor) level rather than leaving it up to TU.

For example: my old apt complex didn't care if you're late on your Sears account, they just want to know if you've paid your rent on time before and if you owe any past rent/deposits. So when their applicant screening service ran your criminal and financial histories, they looked for anything dealing with previous landlord/tenant disputes, past due rent etc. Have 3 bank cards with $15k limits and $200 balances each? So what. Had your Macy's account go 90 days? They didn't care. Have a criminal conviction for smoking pot? Didn't care. Four year old collection agent entry for $100 past due rent from a landlord? Rental application denied!

OTOH if you had that same profile and applied for most any platinum card, you'd probably get it.

I think what it means for us consumers is that the score that we get with our reports are going to be general run of the mill scores. We're not going to get the industry/segment-specific scores.

 

Yup.

There are more ways to slice & dice scores than any of us can imagine-

- Auto Lending
- Mortgage
- Refi
- Home Equity
- Furniture Rental (I'm not kidding ... Equifax has a custom-tailored score for this!)
- Cell Phone
- Utility (Electric/Gas)
- Bankcard
- Retail card


...and, George's favorite, the various profitability score models that FICO sells directly to the lenders (take bureau information + historical usage + payment history + income to predict how much $ will be made on a particular account.

Let's also not forget the bankruptcy predictor score, or the rate surfer predictor score.

Don't worry about it - focus on the things we *know* matter - no derogs, no lates, low ratios, few inquiries - and you should be fine.

Peace,
mj