CoreScore: The New Credit Score and How it Affects You

Most people today are familiar with the term “credit score,” and what it generally entails.  The traditional FICO credit score is used by money lenders of all types to determine a given applicant’s credit worthiness.  It attempts to make this determination by looking at financial records such as credit card borrowing, bank transactions and mortgage information.

Recently the financial data collector CoreLogic, the company responsible for developing the new system, made the CoreScore available to lenders nationwide. This new rating system, in addition to using the traditional FICO credit reporting, will also examine things like rental history and the kinds of transactions which are more common at the lower end of the income spectrum. These will include car and rental payments, payday loans, even child support payments.   CoreScore will scour court documents to determine new sources of financial information previously unavailable like property ownership, tax liens, audits, and various other sources of publicly available data.  Chances are, if something can be financed, it can be linked to this score.

Rather than replacing the traditional reports provided by Equifax, Experian, and Trans Union, according to several public statements from CoreLogic employees, the goal seems to be to augment the traditional reporting method with a CoreScore in order to give lenders a more thorough and complete look at the individual’s financial history and trustworthiness.   While this will undoubtedly have a negative impact on many low and moderate income consumers, others who suffer from a lack of credit history may actually have their lending prospects improved by this new score.  It is unclear as yet exactly what the impact will be, but this much is clear: more and more of the information we once considered to be aspects of our private life are becoming both publicly available and financially pertinent information which can be used for, or more likely, against us.  Credit history has become more vital than ever before in our economic lives and with new systems such as CoreScore being developed, this trend looks to be one that will continue into the foreseeable future.

"CoreScore: The New Credit Score and How it Affects You" was written by Matt Davis.  Matt is a Victim Advisor at the Identity Theft Resource Center.


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