ATLANTA–Equifax said it will begin giving consumers the option of allowing lenders review their electric, phone and cable payment information in order to provide financial firms more data to determine whether to approve loan applicants.
Equifax said it is partnering with Urjanet Inc., a data aggregator that receives payment information from roughly 6,500 utility, phone and other companies, in the initiative and that by early 2020 lenders will be able to ask consumers if they want to supplement their Equifax credit report with the data.
“Banks have spent much of the past decade making loans to ultra-creditworthy borrowers, but that pool is limited,” the company said. “Lenders have been asking Equifax and other credit-reporting and -scoring firms to help them find new borrowers, often by factoring in new data.”
Equifax noted some financial institutions are already considering consumers’ electric and phone bails when making loan decisions, while others are expermenting with other metrics, such as whether borrowers shop at discount stores.
Goal to ‘Shed Light’
Equifax said its move is aimed at assessing people who have no credit reports or scores—or low scores.
The company added the purpose of this new data “is not to extend credit universally,” but “to shed light on creditworthy applicants who are currently credit invisible and those with limited credit histories.”
Equifax said the data won’t be added into a consumer’s credit report but will be provided to the lender alongside it.