Most people realize their credit report will dictate whether they get a loan for anything from a car to a house, and if so, what kind of interest rate they'll pay. But now, a new kind of credit report, called CoreScore, contains information that digs deeper than ever into your payment history.
Attorney Chi Chi Wu, with the National Consumer Law Center, says we're talking about rental applications and evictions, pay day loans, auto title loans, rent-to-own transactions, even payments to the electric company.
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It's all intended to give a lender a better idea of who is asking for money and the likelihood of it being paid back. But you may wonder, where do they get the information?
"From the public records system, and traditionally credit reports only
hold three types of public records; bankruptcy, tax liens and judgments," explains John Ulzheimer with smartcredit.com.
Not everyone is comfortable with all this extra sharing, but others, who pay bills that aren't on traditional credit reports, see it as a plus.
CoreLogic acknowledges the extra information could hurt some people, while helping others. The company would not agree to go on camera, but in a written statement pointed out "borrowers who would typically have insufficient credit history in traditional credit reports could now have new opportunities."
Credit expert John Uzheimer agrees.
"The addition of this type of non-traditional information is going to help some people have a credit report who have never had a credit report before," explains Uzheimer.
Wu sees it a little differntly.
"If there are mice running around, if you don't have any hot water, you're allowed to not pay your rent under some jurisdictions. Is the new credit report going to reflect that," argues Wu.
Another concern is what else could be added to these reports.
"With the push of a button you can aggregate billions of pieces of information about anything and turn it into a consumer report," says Wu.
Both experts agree you should look over your personal report and check it for errors, just as you should with the traditional credit report. Consumers can request their free annual consumer file by contacting CoreLogic Credco toll free at 877-532-8778.