In the News
| FHA Paying More Attention to 'Thin File' Applicants July 8, 2008 - American Banker - Harry Terris The Federal Housing Administration is sharpening its focus on mortgage borrowers without traditional credit scores, a group the agency says has suffered from a pullback in available credit... |
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| Getting Credit Where Credit is Due May 23, 2008 - American Public Media Marketplace - Amy Scott Some 50 million people in the U.S. don't have a credit score, and that can make it tough to navigate this modern financial world. But the mainstream credit industry is catching on. Listen to one woman's experience using PRBC to get a car loan... |
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| The Credit Rating in Your Shoe Box April 10, 2008 - BusinessWeek - Ben Levisohn and Brian Burnsed Alternative credit bureaus mine data on consumers using rent receipts, utility bills, and other clues... |
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| No Credit? Tools Can Help You Get Loan April 7, 2008 - Bankrate.com - Don Taylor, Ph.D., CFA, CFP The big three consumer reporting agencies typically don't track the payment history on rent, cable or phone bills. PRBC, a relatively new consumer reporting agency, allows consumers to register and have these payment histories verified. The verified payment history can be used by creditors in the loan application decision... |
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| Build Credit Without a Credit Card March 19, 2008 - Kiplinger.com - Janet Bodnar There are alternative ways you can establish credit and learn financial responsibility before getting your first card. You can build your own payment history at PRBC, an alternative credit bureau that gathers data on rent and recurring payments for cable, cell phone, insurance, utility and other bills... |
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| Progress on Standards in Alternative Credit Data March 12, 2008 - American Banker - William Launder PRBC and the National Credit Reporting Association have taken steps to preserve the use of nontraditional data to evaluate consumers with little or no traditional credit history.... |
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| Credit Scorers Find New Ways To Judge You March 11, 2008 - The Wall Street Journal - Jane J. Kim For many years, loan approvals were determined largely by borrowers' credit scores. Now, lenders increasingly are looking at other factors, such as rent and utility payments, to determine whether potential borrowers will make good on their loans... |
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| Billeo Providing Payment Histories to Credit Bureau March 10, 2008 - American Banker - Daniel Wolfe PRBC is using information from the bill payment software company Billeo Inc. to establish credit scores for people with thin or no credit histories... |
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| Rent Your Way to Good Credit Februay 14, 2008 - MarketWatch - Marshall Loeb Renting instead of owning your home may seem like flushing money down the drain, but paying that and other bills on time can help you build credit if your current score doesn't qualify you for a mortgage... |
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| Credit Scoring - Finding the Prime in Subprime Februay 2008 - Fair Isaac - Shawn Moore Fair Isaac and PRBC announced a collaboration that combines PRBC's verified data with FICO® Expansion® score data and analytics to deliver a more complete and accurate assessment of applicant risk - one that meets Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and HUD requirements. |
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| PRBC Continues to Aid Underreported Consumers in Getting Fair Credit Score January 30, 2008 - Broker Universe - James Comtois With the current credit reporting system, a number of consumers that either have no credit history or very little credit history are often underreported and underscored, because most credit bureaus don't consider electric or cable companies creditors... |
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| New Credit Scores December 31, 2007 - Lending Tree - Smart Borrower Center New measures of financial reliability can help you if you lack a traditional credit rating... |
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| The Prime Opportunity Among the 'Thin Files' November 13, 2007 - American Banker - Kate Berry Though the credit crunch obviously has made it harder for consumers to get a mortgage, it is also paradoxically spurring some financial institutions to give more thought to "thin-file" consumers: those who fall outside the credit-tracking norms because they do not have bank, card, or loan accounts... |
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| Finally, Credit For Paying the Bills October 1, 2005 - Washington Post - Kenneth R. Harney Millions of Americans are stuck in "subprime" territory, where everything costs more, because their national credit files are incomplete or their credit scores are kept artificially low because their main credit-related activities go unreported. But that is about to change... |
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| Opportunity and Progress, A Bipartisan Platform for National Housing Policy September 23, 2004 - Harvard University, Joint Center for Housing Studies Written for the President and Congress by former HUD Secretaries Cisneros and Kemp, former FHA Commissioner and JCHS Director Nicholas Retsinas, and a Harvard Senior Scholar and former CEO of the National Association of Home Builders Kent Colton. PRBC's most important innovation is in making it possible for renters to demonstrate their credit-worthiness. Aggregated data from PRBC could ultimately be used to develop new loan products. It could change how investors evaluate rental housing. It could influence the pricing of mortgages and insurance. Michelle Singletary observed that PRBC "would especially benefit black and Hispanic consumers, who lag significantly behind whites in homeownership but often have rent-paying histories that are not included in credit scoring models." Excerpt | Full Preview Edition |
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| Building Assets: Making Rent Count Summer 2004 - Ford Foundation Report A recoverable grant from the Ford Foundation is helping the PRBC bureau to establish partnerships with community groups to help low-income and minority renters... |
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| The Color of Money - Earning Credit For Paying Rent February 22, 2004 - Washington Post - Michelle Singletary Just think. If the almighty credit-scoring models took payments such as rent, cable, utility, daycare, etc. into account, perhaps many people wouldn't get trapped into charging so much on their credit cards in the name of building a good credit history... |
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| Renters
Soon Get a Chance To Boost Credit Records January 10, 2004 - Washington Post - Kenneth R. Harney The big three national credit bureaus are not set up to track monthly rental payments or to factor them into credit scores. But that's about to change dramatically. A new national credit bureau, PRBC, is gearing up operations, and its sole mission is to track the payments that nobody else tracks... |
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| 2003 Kids Count Data Book - The High Cost of Being Poor, Another Perspective on Helping Low-Income Families Get By and Get Ahead 2003 - Annie E. Casey Foundation No amount of consistent, timely payment can be recorded as positive credit behavior in the existing system. One promising idea to address this issue is the Pay Rent, Build Credit Data Network... |  | |
| Renters Getting a Chance to Make Credit (Report) History November 1, 2002 - American Banker - Laura K. Thompson Credit card, student loan, and car payments all show up on credit reports, but the largest expenditure for nearly 40% of Americans - rent - is never tracked... |
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| Giving Credit Where It's Due February 19, 2002 - Progressive Policy Institute - Anne Kim Finding new ways to build credit can help low-income consumers buy homes... |
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| Capital Accounting for Those Without Banks June 28, 2001 - The Wall Street Journal - David Wessel Bank accounts are passports required for admission to the mainstream economy. About 10 million Americans don't have them... |
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| From Blind Justice, An Eye-Opener May 31, 2001 - The Wall Street Journal - David Wessel Possible solution to unintended, yet distinct social and racial disparities associated with other-wise effective automated underwriting and credit risk management technologies- track apartment rent payments... |
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