NEW YORK - November 6, 2010 - The age of the plain old credit score is gone, says a report at the Wall Street Journal, and it's been replaced by ever more intrusive efforts by banks and credit agencies to gauge exactly what you're worth, and what you can pay.
For example, if your employer pays you through direct deposits and those deposits stop, financial institutions can now have warning that your money situation is likely to tighten, and may deny you credit on that basis.
But the efforts don't end there. A new area of research, income estimation, "took off earlier this year," WSJ reports, and involves financial firms collecting information about mortgages, personal loans and credit history to determine how much an individual makes and how much credit he or she should be given.
In this new era of deep data mining, even your utility bills and rent check aren't out of bounds.
To that end, financial firms are now tracking customers' bank deposits, rent payments or home values, and even utility bills to figure out who may soon become a financial risk, reports WSJ's Karen Blumenthal. An estimated 40 million consumers, including young people and people who prefer to pay in cash, have too little credit experience to generate a useful credit score. But they are likely to pay rent or utility bills, which could help credit bureaus better assess their credit-worthiness.
Experian, one of the three major credit bureaus, bought RentBureau - which collects rental-payment data from large property managers - and expects to integrate that information into credit records before the end of the year.
Credit bureaus say they also would like to offer data on cellphone payments but have run into concerns over privacy issues, which may require legislation to untangle.