EXPERIAN WANTS TO HELP YOU RAISE YOUR CREDIT SCORE…but there’s a catch: you have to permit Experian to view and monitor your personal bank accounts. Experian’s new product, Experian Boost, says it can raise credit scores for subprime consumers by taking into account regular payments on rent, phone and utility bills. But here’s the catch: Experian will contract with Finicity, which will then have electronic access to your bank accounts.
Hey, devil’s bargain, right? If your credit score is low and you need to raise it, yes, you might benefit from this program. Your personal banking information is the “holy grail” of the corporate you-really-have-no-privacy crowd. So, when you inherit, when someone repays a loan to you, when you sell your old beater car and deposit the money into one of your bank accounts…Experian now will have access to that information and, yes, will sell it to willing buyers, including debt collectors and telemarketers.
So, you choose what’s right for you. I thought you at least should have this warning.
Equifax is rolling out a similar product in 2019